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Three killed, including Italian ambassador, in Congo attack

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Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the country since 2017, Carabinieri officer Vittorio Iacovacci and their driver were killed, officials said. Other members of the convoy were wounded and…
KINSHASA, Congo — The Italian ambassador to Congo, an Italian Carabinieri police officer and their Congolese driver were killed Monday when gunmen attacked a U.N. convoy going to visit a school in eastern Congo, the Italian Foreign Ministry and residents said. Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the country since 2017, Carabinieri officer Vittorio Iacovacci and their driver were killed, officials said. Other members of the convoy were wounded and taken to a hospital, the World Food Program said. The ambush occurred as the convoy was traveling from Goma, Congo’s eastern regional capital, to visit a WFP school project in Rutshuru, the U.N. agency said. The WFP said the attack occurred on a road that had been cleared previously for travel without security escorts, and it was seeking more information from local officials on the attack. Eastern Congo is home to myriad rebel groups all vying for control of the mineral-rich Central African nation that is the size of Western Europe. The attack, a few kilometers north of Goma, was right next to Virunga National Park. North Kivu Gov. Carly Nzanzu Kasivita said the U.N. vehicles were hijacked by the attackers and taken into the bush. The Congolese army and park guards for Virunga National Park came to help those who had been attacked, he said. “There was an exchange of fire. The attackers fired at the bodyguard and the ambassador,” the governor said, adding that the ambassador later died from his wounds. Attanasio, a 43-year-old career diplomat, left behind a wife and three young children.

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