The UN is working “hand-in-hand with both the Congolese and Italian authorities as they conduct criminal investigations,” into the attack last month that killed Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the ambassador’s Italian bodyguard, and their Congolese driver, “to ensure that those responsible for this crime are brought to justice.”
That is according to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was speaking to Italy’s La Stampa newspaper. Guterres also said a security review of the incident is underway.
Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio, his body guard Vittorio Iacovacci, and Mustapha Milambo, a driver for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), died during a 22 February attack on their convoy as it traveled through North Kivu province in the eastern part of the DRC.
In a telegram of condolence to Italian president Sergio Mattarella, Pope Francis praised the 43-year-old Ambassador Attanasio, who left behind a widow and three young children, as “a person of conspicuous human and Christian qualities,” and “prodigious” in his work to stitch together the fabric of society in the DRC, sorely tried and suffering from a quarter century of civil strife, invasion, and insurgency.
