Italian ambassador to DR Congo dies after WFP convoy attacked

Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), an Italian policeman and their Congolese driver have been killed in an ambush on a United Nations convoy in eastern DRC.

The ambush on Monday occurred as the convoy carrying Ambassador Luca Attanasio was travelling from the city of Goma to visit a World Food Programme (WFP) school feeding project in Rutshuru, according to the United Nations agency. It said several other passengers travelling with the delegation sustained injuries during the attack.
North Kivu Governor Carly Nzanzu told Al Jazeera the seven-member convoy was not escorted by any security forces when the incident happened.

The 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.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which took place at about 10:15am (08:15 GMT).
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio expressed his “great dismay and immense sorrow” over the attack and left a meeting in Brussels with European Union counterparts to make an early return to Rome.

“The circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet known and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened,” Di Maio said, paying tribute to the victims.
Nzanzu, the North Kivu governor, said local security forces had not been informed of the delegation’s presence in the area.

“The rebels stopped the WFP convoy with bullets, before bringing down the passengers on board including the ambassador. According to survivors, the rebels wanted money from the ambassador,” Nzanzu told Al Jazeera.
“They took all the passengers and the ambassador to the bush. And a few minutes later on their way they killed the Congolese driver and then the ambassador’s bodyguard,” he added.

Nzanzu said Attanasio was hit by bullets fired by the attackers during an exchange of fire between the rebels and Virunga park rangers supported by the DRC’s armed forces who were alerted to the attack.

The DRC’s army said troops were searching the area in the Virunga National Park for the assailants.
Dozens of armed groups operate in and around Virunga, which lies along the DRC’s borders with Rwanda and Uganda. Park rangers have been repeatedly attacked, including eight who were killed in an ambush last month.
The UN’s refugee agency said last week more than 2,000 civilians were killed in North and South Kivu and Ituri provinces last year.

Attanasio is the second European ambassador to have been killed while serving in the DRC.

In January 1993, French Ambassador Philippe Bernard was killed during riots in Kinshasa sparked by troops opposing former President Mobutu Sese Seke.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2021/2/22/italian-ambassador-to-congo-police-killed-in-attack-on-un-convoy

www.nairaland.com/attachments/13183005_cymera20210223134823_jpeg4526c8f447534653e964d4da77aa641b

Armed group denies killing Italian ambassador in Congo

An armed group in eastern Congo, accused by the government of carrying out an ambush on a United Nations convoy in which Italy's ambassador and two other people were killed, has denied any involvement in the attack.
Congo's interior ministry on Monday blamed a Hutu militia called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which is active near where ambassador Luca Attanasio, 43 and his bodyguard Vittorio Iacovacci, 30, were shot.
World Food Programme driver Mustapha Milambo was also killed, local officials said.
The FDLR was founded by senior Rwandan officers and militiamen who the United Nations and others have said helped orchestrate the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. It is one of around 120 armed groups operating in eastern Congo.
"The FDLR declare that they are in no way involved in the attack," the rebel group said in a statement on Tuesday, condemning what it called a "cowardly assassination".
The FDLR kidnapped two British tourists in the same village in May 2018 and held them for several days before freeing them. The surrounding Virunga National Park, which lies along Congo's borders with Rwanda and Uganda and is home to more than half the world's mountain gorillas, then closed for nine months.
Monday's ambush was carried out by six armed men, who stopped the two-car convoy on the road north from North Kivu's provincial capital Goma, Congo's presidency said.
The attackers lead the seven passengers away from the cars after killing one of the drivers.
Army and park rangers tracked the group and a firefight ensued "The kidnappers fired point-blank shots at the bodyguard who died on the spot and at the ambassador, wounding him in the abdomen. The ambassador died of his wounds an hour later at the United Nations peacekeeping hospital in Goma," the presidency said, adding that it was sending a team to investigate.
Pierre Boisselet from the Kivu Security Tracker, a research initiative that maps unrest in the region, said the FDLR could not be ruled out.
"we haven't seen, and the government hasn't shown so far, evidence proving the FDLR's responsibility at this stage," Boisselet said.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2AN0VL

No where is safe...

I dey think say if world wan end na Africa he go start from...

Congo, e don done for una. Expect countless of air strikes very soon.

Africa....who do us sef?

Damnnn niggarrrr
Rest in peace.....

United Nations format and tools
If you are a niggarrrr and you know that format
Then I can bet my balls you are not a pussy ass moda fuckkking niggarrrr

Bad news
Bad news every where
Bad news all the time

I don tire

It is well

The bad luck of Buhari is just affecting everyone in the world, even other planet.

[img]https://media./images/04c3bd721a0fa40bcd1e90540e8dc815/tenor.gif[/img]

Ok

Ok

That picture of the slain white guy is so disheartening.

My Africa. What is wrong with my continent.
Told one of my acquaintances in the states to come visit naija one of these days. The way she shouted "Do you want me killed?" Shocked me. Automatically in her mind we dey use gun Waka dey dodge behind rocks if we want go buy ordinary pure water. Them don paint us bad finish.

Anyway E don red for those guys. Italy no be naija wey dem go kill us anyhow person one man no go say anything. Him toothpick dey important pass microphone.

Problem problem another problem

This guy once served in Nigeria I suppose.

They just killed the wrong person.

Except EU reacts, his death counts for nothing because Italy is a shadow of its own self.

Dem don buy bad market

But why would these animals attack a United Nations convoy?

See evil of terrorism and aimlessly fights without a cause

Una news for here too dey late, different blogs sef Don carry am yesterday we just dey see am here towards evening. If na snake matter, 2 seconds everything Don burst enter front page. Seun work on your website, don't be like Buhari.

MAFIA ASS NIGGAS

O boy.


Chai...RIP to the dead.


If I be oyinbo I can't be an ambassador to anyhow country. Not even Nigeria


Diplomatic relations don jump fence.

somehow:
Except EU reacts, his death counts for nothing because Italy is a shadow of its own self.

Let's not fool ourselves, the best army on the African continent cannot withstand the Italian army!

he's a target since day one.. Nawaoooh fir the life sha

It is well..

Which way

Hmm

What is wrong with Africans?

I just dey pray make boko Haram kill one American....