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Friday, February 26, 2021

Italy buries ambassador murdered in Congo

Attanasio left behind a wife and three children, Iacovacci was preparing to get married.

• February 26, 2021

Three days after being killed by gunmen, Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been buried in Rome on Thursday, VOA reports.

Mr. Attanasio was killed alongside his bodyguard and parliamentary officer Vittorio Iacovacci during an attack on the United Nations convoy while travelling to a school in the eastern Congolese town Rutshuru.

The convoy was going to Rutshuru on a U.N. World Food Program (WFP) before the attack.

Also killed was Moustapha Milambo, a Congolese driver with the WFP.

An early autopsy had suggested that the two Italians were killed by crossfire.

Held at the Santa Maria degli Angeli Church in Rome, the funeral was attended by Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, and other government officials.

The two Italians were accorded a military salute as their caskets, covered in Italy’s flag, was removed from hearses.

While appearing before the country’s lawmakers on Wednesday, the foreign affairs minister disclosed that the government had asked U.N. and WFP to investigate security responsible for the convoy.

He said the country had sent a team of police investigators to Congo to work with the Central African country’s police to ascertain what went wrong.

Italian prosecutors are expected to commence a full investigation when they return.

Also, Italy’s prime minister promised that the country’s investigators would do everything needed to uncover the motive behind the murder of Milambo, the Congolese driver.

While Attanasio left behind a wife and three children, Iacovacci was preparing to get married.

WFP, the food-assistance branch of the United Nations based in Rome was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for feeding refugees and other malnourished people around the world in 2020.

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