Italian ambassador is killed in attack on UN convoy in DR Congo

  • Luca Attanasio died alongside an Italian soldier and another man on Monday
  • The 44-year-old was in a UN convoy that was attacked by gunmen near the border city of Goma
  • The military has said it is hunting for those responsibleThe Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his bodyguard and a driver have been killed in an attack on a UN convoy in the country. 

    The convoy was attacked at about 10:15 am (0815 GMT) in an attempted kidnap near the town of Kanyamahoro, about 25 km (15 miles) north of the regional capital Goma, a spokesman for the Virunga National Park told Reuters news agency.

    The deaths of the ambassador, Luca Attanasio, 43, Italian military policeman Vittorio Iacovacci, 30, and their Congolese driver, whose name has not been released, were confirmed by the Italian government in a statement. Attanasio, who was married, suffered 'gunshot wounds to the abdomen' and was taken to hospital in critical condition. 

    He later died of his wounds at the UN's Level III Indian Field Hospital.

    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.

    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.

    Luca Attanasio (left), the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been killed during an attack on a UN convoy

    Luca Attanasio (left), the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been killed during an attack on a UN convoy

    Photos shared on social media showed Attanasio lying in the arms of a man in the back of a park authority jeep and the broken window of a World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle. Reuters has not verified the images.

    Attanasio, who was typically based in the capital Kinshasa, had been taking part in a World Food Programme visit to the country's troubled east when he was attacked.

    No information on the attackers was given and no group has yet claimed responsibility. The military said that it is hunting for those responsible. 

    The diplomat had been based in the DRC for the last three years, Italian officials said. He had undertaken diplomatic postings in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria. 

    In response to the attack, Mambo Kaway, president of a local civil society group in the Nyrangongo territory, said: 'There were five people aboard the vehicle, including the Italian ambassador. The driver died after being shot with several bullets, and others were wounded.

    'The situation is very tense.' 

    A spokesman for the Italian foreign ministry said: 'It is with deep sorrow that the Farnesina confirms the death, today in Goma, of the Ambassador of Italy to the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio and of a soldier from the Carabinieri.' 

    Attanasio (left) had been based in the DRC for the last three years, Italian officials said

    Attanasio (left) had been based in the DRC for the last three years, Italian officials said

    In a separate statement, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio expressed his 'great dismay and immense sorrow' and broke off from a meeting in Brussels with EU counterparts to make an early return to Rome.

    'The circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet known and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened,' Di Maio said, paying tribute to the victims as 'two servants of the state'. 

    EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell informed the bloc's foreign ministers of the incident at the meeting and presented his condolences to Italy and the United Nations.

    'The news (is) extremely worrying, and we are following the situation closely with the EU delegation in Congo,' said EU Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali. 

    Attanasio was awarded a peace prize in October 2020 in a ceremony held in a church in southern Italy. The Nassiriya International Prize for Peace is named in memory of the 19 Italians, including 12 Carabinieri paramilitary officers, five soldiers and two Italian civilians, who were killed in the bombing of the Italian military base in southern Iraq in 2003. Nine others were also killed.

    Attanasio died of his wounds at the UN's Level III Indian Field Hospital. An Italian police officer was also killed in the attack

    Attanasio died of his wounds at the UN's Level III Indian Field Hospital. An Italian police officer was also killed in the attackAttanasio was cited for 'his commitment aimed at safeguarding peace between peoples' and for 'having contributed to the realization of important humanitarian projects, distinguishing himself for altruism, dedication and the spirit of service for people in difficulty,' said La Repubblica daily in its account of the ceremony.

    La Repubblica quoted Attanasio as saying, 'All that which we take for granted in Italy isn't in Congo, where, unfortunately, there are so many problems to resolve.' Attanasio described the role of the ambassador there is 'above all to be close to the Italians but also to contribute to achieving peace.' Some 1,000 Italians live in Congo.  

    A vast country the size of continental western Europe, the DRC is grappling with numerous conflicts, especially in its remote, mineral-rich east.

    Scores of militias roam the four eastern provinces. Many are a legacy of wars in the 1990s that sucked in countries around central-southern Africa and claimed millions of lives.

    Monday's attack occurred north of Goma - a region that includes the UNESCO-listed Virunga National Park, which has also been troubled by violence.

    The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, said last week that more than 2,000 civilians were killed in North and South Kivu and Ituri last year.

    Monday's attack occurred north of Goma - a region that includes the UNESCO-listed Virunga National Park, which has also been troubled by violence

    Monday's attack occurred north of Goma - a region that includes the UNESCO-listed Virunga National Park, which has also been troubled by violence

    The attacks by brutal armed groups have also displaced millions in what the UN calls one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.  

    There are 5.2 million people displaced in the DRC, according to the United Nations Children's Agency, which said in a report on Friday that this represents more displaced than in any other country except Syria. In the past year alone, 50 per cent of people have been displaced, it said.

    The resource-rich nation suffered one of the most brutal colonial reigns ever known before undergoing decades of corrupt dictatorship. 

    Back-to-back civil wars later drew in a number of neighbouring countries. And many rebel groups have come and gone during the UN mission's years of operation, at times invading the eastern regional capital, Goma, where the ambassador was killed.

    In January 2019, Congo experienced its first peaceful democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960 following the election of President Felix Tshisekedi.

    He succeeded strongman Joseph Kabila in a disputed election marked by allegations of large-scale fraud and suspicions of a backroom deal by Mr Kabila to install Mr Tshisekedi over an opposition candidate who, according to leaked electoral data, was the real winner.

    The UN peacekeeping mission has been working to draw down its 15,000-troop presence and transfer its security work to Congolese authorities.  

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