Italy’s ambassador to DR Congo killed in attack on UN convoy
The Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Luca Attanasio and two other people have been killed on Monday during in an attack on a United Nations convoy.
According to a statement issued by the Italian Foreign Ministry, the 43-year-old ambassador, a carabinieri police officer who was providing security for him and a third person, were killed in Goma, during an attempted kidnap.
“The ambassador and the soldier were traveling in a car in a convoy of MONUSCO, the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” the statement reads.
Reuters quoted a source from the Virunga National Park saying that the convoy was attacked by unidentified assailants near the town of Kanyamahoro, a few miles north of the regional capital Goma, at around 10.15 am local time.
Commenting on the news, the Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi di Maio, who was in Brussels for a meeting with his European counterparts (FAC), said that “the circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet known and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened.”
