24 Feb 2021
Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was shot and killed on Monday after armed assailants ambushed his U.N. convoy as he traveled in eastern DRC, the Italian foreign ministry confirmed in a statement.
Luca Attanasio, 43, suffered “gunshot wounds to the abdomen” and was taken to a hospital in Goma in critical condition, where he later succumbed to his injuries, a diplomat in Kinshasa told Radio France Internationale (RFI). An Italian police officer who accompanied Attanasio in the convoy, Vittorio Iacovacci, and an unidentified Congolese driver also died from wounds sustained in the attack.