Italian Ambassador to DRC Dies in Militant Attack on UN Convoy - Rome

ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd February, 2021) Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Luca Attanasio has died in a militant attack on a UN convoy, the Italian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The attack took place in the eastern DRC city of Goma in the North Kivu Province, located next to the border with Rwanda and Uganda.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms with great sorrow the death of Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Luca Attanasio and a carabineer in Goma today. The ambassador and the carabineer were moving in a vehicle of a convoy of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo," the ministry said in a communique.

North Kivu is a home province of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group that brings together Islamists and forces opposed to longtime Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. The ADF has operated in the province since late 1990s. In 2017, the group swore allegiance to the IS (terrorist organization banned in Russia). The United Nations holds the group responsible for killing hundreds of civilians.