Italian ambassador to Congo killed in attack on UN convoy

The Italian ambassador to Congo, an Italian Carabinieri police officer and his Congolese driver were killed Monday in an attack on a UN convoy in an area that is home to a myriad of rebel groups, the Foreign Ministry and local residents said.

The ambush occurred when the convoy was traveling from Goma, the regional capital of eastern Congo, to visit a World Food Program school feeding project in Rutshuru, the UN agency said in a statement.

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WFP said it was seeking information from local authorities, as the ambush took place on a road that had been cleared for travel without security escorts.

Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the country since 2017, Carabinieri officer Vittorio Iacovacci and his driver were killed. Other members of the convoy were injured, the WFP said.

The attack took place in Nyiragongo territory in North Kivu, the same area known as the “three antennas”, where two Britons were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in 2018, said Mambo Kaway, president of a local civil society group.

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

“The situation is very tense,” he added.

The wounded were taken to a hospital near the UN.

The governor of North Kivu, Carly Nzanzu Kasivita, said the vehicles were taken hostage and escorted into the bush and that, when the locals saw them, they alerted the authorities.

The Congolese army and guards at Virunga National Park have come to the rescue, he said.

“There was an exchange of fire. The attackers shot the bodyguard and the ambassador,” said the governor, adding that the ambassador died later from his injuries.

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

The attack, a few kilometers north of the regional capital of Goma, was close to Virunga National Park. Last month, snipers shot and killed at least six rangers in the park’s Rutshuru area.

Marie Tumba Nzenza, Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent her condolences and promised the Italian government that the Congolese government would do everything it could to investigate and find out who is behind the murders.

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

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell informed the bloc’s foreign ministers about the incident at a meeting he chaired in Brussels and offered 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.

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

“The circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet clear and no effort will be spared to clarify what happened,” he said in a statement.

Eastern Congo is home to a myriad of rebel groups, all competing for control of mineral-rich lands.

There are 5.2 million displaced people in the Central African country, according to the United Nations Agency for Children, which said in a report on Friday that this represents more displaced people than in any other country except Syria . Last year alone, 50% were displaced, he said.

The nation the size of Western Europe suffered one of the most brutal colonial reigns ever known, before going through decades of corrupt dictatorship. Later, consecutive civil wars involved several neighboring countries. And many rebel groups came and went during the years of operation of the UN mission, sometimes 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.

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The UN peacekeeping mission, known by its acronym MONUSCO, has worked to reduce its presence of at least 16,000 soldiers and to transfer its security work to the Congolese authorities.

After exercising diplomatic functions in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria, Attanasio was appointed ambassador to the Italian embassy in Kinshasa in September 2017.

Attanasio received the Nassiriya International Peace Prize in October at a ceremony held in a church in southern Italy.

Attanasio was quoted for “his commitment to safeguarding peace between peoples” and for “having contributed to the realization of important humanitarian projects, distinguished by altruism, dedication and a spirit of service to people in difficulty”, said the daily La Repubblica in his account of the ceremony.

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La Repubblica quoted Attanasio as saying: “Everything we consider natural in Italy is not in Congo, where, unfortunately, there are so many problems to solve.” Attanasio described the ambassador’s role there “above all, being close to the Italians, but also contributing to peace”. About 1,000 Italians live in the Congo.