Kinshasa (Congo): The Italian ambassador to Congo and an Italian carabineri police officer were killed Monday. The tragedy happened during an attack on a UN convoy in an area that is home to myriad rebel groups, the Foreign Ministry and local people said. The ambush on the World Food Programme convoy that killed Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio and the officer occurred near Goma. It is situated in Congo’s eastern regional capital in the territory of Nyrangongo, in North Kivu.
It is the same area, known as the ‘three antennas’, where two Britons were kidnapped by unidentified armed men in 2018, said Mambo Kaway. He is the president of a local civil society group in the Nyrangongo territory.
“There were five people aboard the vehicle, including the Italian ambassador,” Kaway said. “The driver died after being shot with several bullets, and others were wounded. The situation is very tense,” he added. The wounded were taken to a nearby UN Hospital.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell informed the bloc’s foreign ministers of the incident at a meeting. He also 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,” EU Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said. She provided no details about those killed or injured.
Congo’s east is home to myriad rebel groups all vying for control of the mineral-rich land. More than 2,000 civilians were killed last year in eastern Congo in violence by 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 ramp up this year.
There are 5.2 million people displaced in the Central African nation, according to the United Nations Children’s Agency. It said in a report Friday that this represents more displaced than in any other country except Syria. In the past year alone, 50 per cent have been displaced, it said.
Attanasio after serving in diplomatic roles in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria, was appointed ambassador at the Italian embassy in Kinshasha in September 2017. He was awarded a peace prize in October 2020 in a ceremony held in a church in southern Italy.
Attanasio was cited for ‘his commitment aimed at safeguarding peace between people’ and for ‘having contributed to the realization of important humanitarian projects’.