The BBC reports that Italy’s Foreign Ministry has said that Ambassador Attanasio was killed in an attack near the eastern Congolese city of Goma. The statement said that Attanasio died in hospital on the 22nd after being attacked near the eastern Congolese city of Goma while accompanying a UN World Food Program convoy.
The Italian Carabinieri officer and another person traveling with Attanasio were also killed in the attack, the report said. A statement from the Italian Foreign Ministry said, “It is with deep sadness that we confirm that the Italian ambassador to Congo was killed in an attack in Goma on the 22nd.”
Officials at Virunga National Park, near the site of the incident, said the attack was an alleged attempt to kidnap people accompanying the convoy. Armed groups frequently operate near Virunga National Park, and militias have clashed at times in eastern Congo, where a large number of U.N. troops have worked to keep the peace.
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