The Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was killed in an attack on a United Nations World Food Program (WFP) convoy. This is confirmed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Italian ambassador to the Congo, Luca Attanasio, was shot in Virunga National Park near Goma in the east of the country. He was riding in a WFP convoy, which was ambushed. It is not known who the attackers were.
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that the ambush also killed the Congolese driver and an Italian security officer.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The attack happened at a quarter past ten – a quarter past nine Belgian time – in the morning. According to the governor of North Kivu province, the attackers fired warning shots. They killed the driver and led the others into the forest, intending to kidnap them. When rangers spotted them and opened fire, the attackers shot the security guard and the ambassador.
Dozens of militias are active in the east of Congo to gain control of the precious raw materials. They regularly target rangers. Just last month, six of them died in an earlier ambush.
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