![\"Italian-ambassador-killed-in-DR-Congo-attack-rapidnews-rapid-news-dailyrapidnews\"](\"https:\/\/dailyrapidnews.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Italian-ambassador-killed-in-DR-Congo-attack-rapidnews-rapid-news-dailyrapidnews-dailyrapid.jpg\")
<\/p>\nItaly\u2019s 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>\n
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>\n
The Italian government confirmed Attanasio\u2019s death and said an Italian policeman, Vittorio Iacovacci, as well as a driver it did not identify, had also died.<\/p>\n
President Sergio Mattarella lashed what he called a \u201ccowardly attack\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Italian republic is in mourning for these servants of the state who lost their lives,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio expressed his \u201cgreat dismay and immense sorrow\u201d, breaking off from a meeting in Brussels with EU counterparts to make an early return to Rome.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet known and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened,\u201d Di Maio said.<\/p>\n
Attanasio, 43, had been representing Italy in Kinshasa since 2017, first as head of mission, and then as ambassador from October 2019.<\/p>\n
The envoy suffered \u201cgunshot wounds to the abdomen\u201d and was taken to a hospital in Goma in critical condition, the diplomat in Kinshasa said.<\/p>\n
The DRC\u2019s army said its troops were searching the area for the assailants.<\/p>\n
A vast country the size of continental western Europe, the DRC is grappling with numerous conflicts, especially in its remote, mineral-rich east.<\/p>\n
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>\n
The Rome-based WFP said that Attanasio was on a fact-finding mission with the UN\u2019s food agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe delegation was travelling from Goma to visit a WFP school feeding programme in Rutshuru when the incident took place,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attack\u2026 occurred on a road that had previously been cleared for travel without security escorts,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s attack occurred north of Goma, in Nyiaragongo Territory.<\/p>\n
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>\n
The region includes the UNESCO-listed Virunga National Park, a vast wildlife reserve that is home to a quarter of the world\u2019s population of critically endangered mountain gorillas.<\/p>\n
More than 200 of the park\u2019s rangers have been killed in attacks stretching back more than a decade.<\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s 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>\n
Attanasio joined the Italian diplomatic service in 2003 and served previously in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria.<\/p>\n
He was hailed as \u201ca man gifted with uncommon courage, humanity and professionalism\u201d by Emanuela Del Re, who was deputy foreign minister from 2018 until last month.<\/p>\n
Del Re said she worked with Attanasio on the emergency repatriation of a \u201cvery sick\u201d nun from DR Congo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember his infectious smile, his class, his great knowledge of African affairs,\u201d she said. \u201cCiao (good-bye) my dear esteemed Luca.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attanasio is the second European ambassador to have been killed while serving in the DRC.<\/p>\n
In January 1993, French ambassador Philippe Bernard was killed during riots in Kinshasa sparked by troops opposing dictator Mobutu Sese Seke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Italy\u2019s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was among three people killed on Monday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n