Italian ambassador and two others killed in Congo UN convoy ambush

The assailants stopped the convoy by firing warning shots. They killed the driver and were leading the others into the forest when park rangers opened fire.
An undated handout picture of Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio
Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio, who was killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy in eastern Congo
Reuters

Italy’s ambassador, his bodyguard and a driver from the United Nations World Food Programme were killed when their convoy on a charitable mission was ambushed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The ambassador, Luca Attanasio, 43, Italian military policeman Vittorio Iacovacci, 30, and a Congolese driver, whose name has not been released, were shot dead in the attempted kidnap as they were being led into the dense forest of Virunga.

The fleet of vehicles was attacked at about 8.15am today near the town of Kanyamahoro, 15 miles north of the regional capital Goma, a spokesman for the Virunga National Park said.

The driver was working for the UN World Food Programme, it said in a statement, adding that a number of other passengers were injured.

Dozens of armed groups operate in and around Virunga, which lies along Congo’s borders with Rwanda and Uganda. Park rangers have been repeatedly attacked and six were killed in an ambush last month.

DRCONGO-ITALY-UNREST
A man who tried to help the wounded driver of the Italian Ambassador to the DR Congo Luca Attanasio wears a blood-stained jacket
AFP via Getty Images

The governor of North Kivu province, Carly Nzanzu Kasivita, told Reuters the assailants stopped the convoy by firing warning shots. They killed the driver and were leading the others into the forest when park rangers opened fire. The attackers killed the bodyguard and the ambassador also died, Nzanzu said.

Virunga spokesman Oliver Mukisya said there were no indications yet of who was behind the attack, nor was there any immediate claim of responsibility.

“I promise the Italian government that my country’s government will do everything to discover who is behind this awful murder,” Congo’s foreign minister Marie Ntumba Nzeza said.

DRCONGO-ITALY-UNREST
Congolese soldiers of the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) patrol the road in the Kibumba area in the Virunga National Park
AFP via Getty Images

According to the ministry website, Attanasio had been Italy’s head of mission in Kinshasa since 2017 and was made ambassador in 2019. He was married and had three young daughters, according to his Facebook page.

“He was an enthusiastic young diplomat with a great sensitivity to social problems,” said Mauro Garofolo at the Sant’Egidio charity based in Rome. “He closely followed our work such as our programme to help HIV/AIDS sufferers.”

Virunga, which sits on the forest-cloaked volcanoes of central Africa and is home to more than half the world’s mountain gorillas, attracts thousands of tourists each year.

Monday’s attack was in the same village where two British tourists were briefly kidnapped in 2018, leading the park to close to tourists for nine months.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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