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Italian ambassador killed in DR Congo attack

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/reuters/02/22/luca.jpg"/><figcaption>An undated handout picture shows Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio, who was killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy in eastern Congo, posing for a photograph. <em>Italian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Italy&#x27;s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was among three people killed on Monday when a UN convoy came under attack in the troubled east, DRC sources and the Italian government said.</p><p>Luca Attanasio died of his wounds after a World Food Programme (WFP) convoy came under gunfire near Goma while he was on a field trip, a senior diplomatic source said in Kinshasa.</p><p>The Italian government confirmed Attanasio&#x27;s death and said an Italian policeman, Vittorio Iacovacci, as well as a driver it did not identify, had also died.</p><p>President Sergio Mattarella lashed what he called a &quot;cowardly attack.&quot;</p><p>&quot;The Italian republic is in mourning for these servants of the state who lost their lives,&quot; he said in a statement.</p><p>Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio expressed his &quot;great dismay and immense sorrow&quot;, breaking off from a meeting in Brussels with EU counterparts to make an early return to Rome. </p><p>&quot;The circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet known and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened,&quot; Di Maio said. </p><p>Attanasio, 43, had been representing Italy in Kinshasa since 2017, first as head of mission, and then as ambassador from October 2019.</p><p>The envoy suffered &quot;gunshot wounds to the abdomen&quot; and was taken to a hospital in Goma in critical condition, the diplomat in Kinshasa said.</p><p>The DRC&#x27;s army said its troops were searching the area for the assailants.</p><div><strong>- Troubled region -</strong></div><p>A vast country the size of continental western Europe, the DRC is grappling with numerous conflicts, especially in its remote, mineral-rich east.</p><p>Scores of militias roam the four eastern provinces, many of them a legacy of wars in the 1990s that sucked in countries around central-southern Africa and claimed millions of lives.</p><p>The Rome-based WFP said that Attanasio was on a fact-finding mission with the UN&#x27;s food agency.</p><p>&quot;The delegation was travelling from Goma to visit a WFP school feeding programme in Rutshuru when the incident took place,&quot; it said in a statement.</p><p>&quot;The attack... occurred on a road that had previously been cleared for travel without security escorts,&quot; it said.</p><p>Monday&#x27;s attack occurred north of Goma, in Nyiaragongo Territory.</p><p>Armed groups in the area include a Rwandan Hutu militia called the FDLR, as well as the M23, also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army.</p><p>The region includes the UNESCO-listed Virunga National Park, a vast wildlife reserve that is home to a quarter of the world&#x27;s population of critically endangered mountain gorillas.</p><p>More than 200 of the park&#x27;s rangers have been killed in attacks stretching back more than a decade.</p><p>The UN&#x27;s refugee agency, the UNHCR, said last week that more than 2,000 civilians were killed in North and South Kivu and Ituri province last year.</p><div><strong>- &#x27;Uncommon courage&#x27; -</strong></div><p>Attanasio joined the Italian diplomatic service in 2003 and served previously in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria. </p><p>He was hailed as &quot;a man gifted with uncommon courage, humanity and professionalism&quot; by Emanuela Del Re, who was deputy foreign minister from 2018 until last month. </p><p>Del Re said she worked with Attanasio on the emergency repatriation of a &quot;very sick&quot; nun from DR Congo.</p><p>&quot;I remember his infectious smile, his class, his great knowledge of African affairs,&quot; she said. &quot;Ciao (good-bye) my dear esteemed Luca.&quot; </p><p>Attanasio is the second European ambassador to have been killed while serving in the DRC.</p><p>In January 1993, French ambassador Philippe Bernard was killed during riots in Kinshasa sparked by troops opposing dictator Mobutu Sese Seke. </p><div><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES</strong><br/> </div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bh4ftbXfQNw?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><div> </div>

<p>Italy's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was among three people killed on Monday when a UN convoy came under attack in the troubled east, DRC sources and the Italian government said.</p>

Italy's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was among three people killed on Monday when a UN convoy came under attack in the troubled east, DRC sources and the Italian government said.