Italian ambassador to Congo killed in attack on UN convoy

The Foreign Ministry and local people said the Italian ambassador to Congo, an Italian carabinieri police officer and their Congolese driver, were killed Monday in an attack on a UN convoy in an area where there are numerous rebel groups.

The ambush occurred when the convoy from Goma, Congo’s eastern capital, traveled to visit a Rutshuru World Food Program nutrition project, the UN agency said in a statement.

DOG STAYS IN THE Freezing of alpine foothills with injured Italian hiker for 7 nights

WFP said they were seeking information from local authorities as the ambush occurred on a road previously cleared for travel without safety escorts.

Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the country since 2017, carabinieri officer Vittorio Iacovacci and their manager have died. Other members of the convoy were injured, WFP said.

The attack took place in the area of ​​Nyiragongo, in North Kivu, the same area known as the ‘three antennas’, where two Britons were abducted in 2018 by unknown armed men, said Mambo Kaway, president of a local civil society group, said.

“There were five people on board the vehicle, including the Italian ambassador,” Kaway said. “The driver was killed after being shot several times, and others were wounded,” he said.

“The situation is very tense,” he added.

The wounded were taken to a nearby UN hospital.

North Kivu Governor Carly Nzanzu Kasivita said the vehicles were taken hostage and escorted into the bushes and local authorities warned residents.

The Congolese army and park rangers for the Virunga National Park came to the rescue, he said.

“There was an exchange of fire. The attackers shot at the bodyguard and the ambassador,” the governor said, adding that the ambassador later succumbed to his wounds.

Attanasio, a 43-year-old career diplomat, leaves behind a wife and three young children.

The attack, a few kilometers north of the regional capital Goma, was just next to the Virunga National Park. Last month, gunmen shot dead at least six rangers in the Rutshuru area of ​​the park.

Foreign Minister Marie Tumba Nzenza sent her condolences and promised the Italian government that the Congolese government would do everything in its power to investigate and find out who was behind the killings.

More than 2,000 civilians were killed in violence in eastern Congo last year by armed groups whose brutal attacks using machetes and heavy weapons also displaced millions in what the United Nations calls one of the worst humanitarian crises as attacks escalate this year. .

Josep Borrell, EU’s foreign policy chief, briefed the bloc’s foreign minister at a meeting he chaired in Brussels and expressed 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 Nabila Massrali, spokesperson for the EU Commission.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi expressed their condolences to the families of the victims. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has vowed to determine who is responsible for the killings of “exemplary” Italians while doing their job.

“The circumstances of this brutal attack are still unclear and no attempt will be spared to shed light on what happened,” he said in a statement.

Congo East is home to a myriad of rebel groups all competing to control the mineral-rich country.

According to the United Nations Children’s Agency, 5.2 million people have been displaced in the Central African country, which said in a report on Friday that it was more displaced than in any other country except Syria. In the last year alone, 50% have been displaced, according to the report.

The country as the size of Western Europe suffered through one of the most brutal colonial regimes ever known before undergoing decades of corrupt dictatorship. Rugby civil wars later drew a number of neighboring countries. And many rebel groups came and went during the years of the UN mission, which sometimes invaded the eastern capital Goma, where the ambassador was killed.

In January 2019, Congo experienced its first peaceful democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960 after the election of President Felix Tshisekedi. He succeeds the strongman Joseph Kabila in a controversial election marked by allegations of large-scale fraud.

BURMA PROTEST AGAINST MILITARY COPY LEAVES AT LEAST 2 DEAD, DOCUMENTS INJURED

The UN peacekeeping mission, known under its acronym MONUSCO, is working to reduce its presence to at least 16,000 troops and pass on its security work to Congolese authorities.

After serving in diplomatic roles in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria, Attanasio was appointed Ambassador to the Italian Embassy in Kinshasa in September 2017.

Attanasio was awarded the Nassiriya International Prize for Peace in October during a ceremony held at a church in southern Italy.

Attanasio is quoted as saying ‘his commitment to protecting peace between people’ and ‘contributing to the realization of important humanitarian projects, which distinguished him for altruism, dedication and the spirit of service to people in difficult circumstances’, La Repubblica daily said report of the ceremony.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

La Repubblica quoted Attanasio as saying: “Everything we take for granted in Italy is not in Congo, where unfortunately there are so many problems to solve.” Attanasio described the role of the ambassador as being “above all to be close to the Italians, but also to contribute to the attainment of peace.” About 1,000 Italians live in Congo.