Italian ambassador, police officer and driver killed in attack in Congo

The Italian ambassador to Congo, an Italian carabineri police officer and their Congolese driver were killed Monday in an attack on a U.N. convoy in an area that is home to myriad rebel groups, the Foreign Ministry and local people said. The ambush occurred as the convoy was travelling from Goma, Congo's eastern regional capital, to visit a World Food Program school feeding project in Rutshuru, the U.N. agency said in a statement.

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

Ambassador Luca Attanasio, Italy's ambassador to the country since 2017, carabinieri officer Vittorio Iacovacci and their driver were killed. Other members of the convoy were injured, WFP said.

The attack occurred in the territory of Nyiragongo, in North Kivu, the same area, known as the "three antennas," where two Britons were kidnapped by unidentified armed men in 2018, said Mambo Kaway, president of a local civil society group.

"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," he said.

"The situation is very tense," he added.

The wounded were taken to a nearby U.N. hospital.

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. Last month, six rangers working at Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were killed by a local militia group.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell informed the bloc's foreign ministers of the incident at a meeting he is chairing in Brussels and presented 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.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Premier Mario Draghi expressed their condolences to the families of the victims. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio vowed to ascertain who was responsible for killing "exemplary" Italians as they did their jobs.

"The circumstances of this brutal attack are still unclear and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened," he said in a statement.

Congo's east is home to myriad rebel groups all vying for control of the mineral-rich land.

There are 5.2 million people displaced in the Central African nation, according to the United Nations Children's Agency, which said in a report Friday that this represents more displaced than in any other country except Syria. In the past year alone, 50% have been displaced, it said.

The nation the size of Western Europe suffered through one of the most brutal colonial reigns ever known before undergoing decades of corrupt dictatorship. Back-to-back civil wars later drew in a number of neighboring countries. And many rebel groups have come and gone during the U.N. mission's years of operation, at times 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.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission, known by its acronym MONUSCO, has been working to draw down its at least 16,000-troop presence and transfer its security work to Congolese authorities.

After serving in diplomatic roles in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria, Attanasio was appointed ambassador at the Italian embassy in Kinshasa in September 2017.

Attanasio was awarded the Nassiriya International Prize for Peace in October in a ceremony held in a church in southern Italy.

Attanasio was cited for "his commitment aimed at safeguarding peace between peoples" and for "having contributed to the realization of important humanitarian projects, distinguishing himself for altruism, dedication and the spirit of service for people in difficulty," said La Repubblica daily in its account of the ceremony.

La Repubblica quoted Attanasio as saying, "All that which we take for granted in Italy isn't in Congo, where, unfortunately, there are so many problems to resolve." Attanasio described the role of the ambassador there is "above all to be close to the Italians but also to contribute to achieving peace." Some 1,000 Italians live in Congo.