It was not an execution but the death of the ambassador Luca Attanasio and the carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci came during an attempted kidnapping that ended tragically with a fire fight . The figure emerges from the first results of the autopsy ordered by the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office and carried out today at the Gemelli Polyclinic. There are a total of four blows that caused the death of the diplomat and the military in Congo. The victims were hit by two hits each. The CT scan revealed that the bullets pierced the bodies from left to right.
According to what emerges from the autopsy, the ambassador was hit by blows to the abdomen and the examination identified both the entry and exit holes. No metal residues were found. As for Iacovacci, he was hit in the side area and, then, at the base of the neck where a bullet from an AK47, a Kalasnikov, was identified. The body of the carabiniere has multiple fractures in the left forearm. This suggests that the bullet that stopped in the neck hit the fractured limb first. The prosecutor has ordered ballistic tests.
“He was heartbreaking last night – he added – welcoming, alongside President Draghi and his family,the bodies of our two compatriots, victims of the cowardly ambush that cut off their young lives and upset those of their loved ones “. This was said by Foreign Minister Luigi Di Mio, reporting to the Chamber on the ambush. A long applause in their memory preceded the start of Di Maio’s intervention. “At the Pam and the UN – he added – we formally requested the opening of an investigation to clarify what happened, the reasons behind the safety device used and in who was responsible for these decisions. We also explained that we expect clear and comprehensive answers as soon as possible.
“” Their sacrifice illuminates the lives of many, diplomats and soldiers, who silently carry out their duty to defend Italy and our values, in distant countries and at risk. It is a sacrifice that the country honors with a state funeral “.” All of us – he added – must honor these heroes of ours by gathering around their families. ” The diplomatic adviser of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Luigi Mattiolo,he received at Palazzo Chigi the envoy of the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, ambassador Patrick Mpoy Luabey, and not the ambassador of the African country in Rome, as erroneously reported previously. It is learned from diplomatic sources. Yesterday it was learned that the Congolese head of state Felix Antoine Tshisekedi had decided to send his emissary to Rome to bring a personal letter to the Prime Minister after the attack in which the Italian ambassador in Kinshasa Luca Attanasio and the carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci, as well as the Congolese driver of the Pam Mustapha Milambo Baguna.
The state plane carrying the coffins of the ambassador Luca Attanasio and the carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci, killed in Congo, arrived in the night at Ciampino military airport in Rome. Waiting for them, Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini. Congo, the remains of the ambassador and the carabiniere at Ciampino airport The autopsies on the bodies are expected in the morning at the Gemelli hospital in Rome . The widow and the three daughters of Luca Attanasio should arrive in Italy within the day. According to what was announced by the mayor of Limbiate, Antonio Domenico Romeo. Attanasio had been married for some years to Zakia Seddikiand from the marriage was born a girl of almost 4 years and two twins of just over two and a half years.
The ambassador’s parents and sister left Limbiate for Rome. Visibly distressed family members were helped to load luggage. The SUV then left escorted by a carabinieri car.
“In thirty seconds the memories of a lifetime have passed, the world has collapsed on us. These are unfair things, which must not happen. For us, life is over”. Thus Salvatore, the Pope of Ambassador Luca Attanasio, explained to ANSA the moment in which he learned of his son’s death in an ambush .
The Municipality of Sonnino, in the province of Latina, would like to name the local police station in memory of Vittorio Iacovacci.“In addition to calling the city day of mourning to coincide with the funeral, we want to ask the leaders of the Arma to name the Sonnino carabinieri barracks after Vittorio Iacovacci”, Mayor Luciano De Angelis told ANSA.
The Carabinieri del Ros, who arrived in Congo on delegation from the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office, will acquire the minutes of the testimonies collected by the local investigators of the people present at the scene of the ambush. Among these is the story of the Italian WFP official, Rocco Leone, the Italian survivor.Among the activities that the Carabinieri del Ros will carry out in Congo there is also that relating to the weapons used by the rangers who intervened in the place of the ambassador Luca Attanasio and the carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci. The Ros will acquire information on the weapons supplied to the body that is in charge of monitoring the Virunga Park. According to a reconstruction, there would have been a fire fight between the rangers and the kidnappers and it was in this phase that the two Italians would have lost their lives.
The Congolese head of state Felix Antoine Tshisekedi has decided to send his “emissary to Rome today to bring a personal letter to the Italian Prime Minister” Mario Draghi. The Cas-Info site writes this, summarizing a statement from the presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo on the killing of ambassador Luca Attanasio and carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci. The Congolese president “paid a visit” to the widow of the Italian ambassador. The remains of Ambassador Luca Attanasio and Carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci “received the tributes of the Congolese authorities during a sober ceremony”without media access. The Infoplus website reports this by publishing a photo of the two coffins covered by as many tricolor flags. To pay the homage, “huddling in meditation”, were “the governor of North Kivu, Carly Nzanzu Kasivita, and the chief adviser to the head of state at the Boshiri diplomatic college”. The coffins were exhibited under a marquee in the military sector of Monusco at Goma international airport, Infoplus specifies. “After having placed two wreaths in the name of the Congolese Head of State Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo”, the two senior officials “exchanged a few words with the delegates of the Italian government who came to ensure the repatriation of their compatriots”, it is added. A cargo plane of theTHE DYNAMICS
According to a statement from the Congolese presidency , it was the kidnappers who killed the ambassador and the carabiniere , shooting them point-blank. “Alerted, the Ecoguardie and the Fardc”, the Congolese Armed Forces, “pursued the enemy. At 500 meters, the kidnappers fired from close range on the bodyguard, who died on the spot, and on the ambassador, wounding him abdomen “, states in the press release reported by the Cas-Info site.
The ambassador had already arrived in Goma last Friday, according to a statement from the Congolese presidency. “The ambassador arrived in Goma on Friday 19 February 2021 at 10:30 am on board the Monusco jet registered 5Y / Sim. At 09:27 on Monday 22 February”, it is added, “a convoy of two vehicles from the World Food Program ‘Pam’ left Goma for the municipality of Kiwanja, in the territory of Rutshuru “. The third Italian who was traveling yesterday with Ambassador Luca Attanasio and escorting carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci
is unharmed in the UN convoy attacked in Congo. Rocco Leone, deputy director of WFP in the country, according to what is learned, was taken to hospital for checks immediately after the ambush but did not suffer any injuries. The wife of the surviving Italian UN cooperator in Congo was able to speak on the phone with her husband, who would reassure her about his condition . Di lei. He would tell her to be okay. It was learned in Prato from friends of the only surviving Italian. Rocco Leone, deputy director of the World Food Program (Wfp), 56, is not injured in the shooting but is hospitalized in an African hospital in a state of shock.
And the“Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda” (Fdlr) denied being responsible for the killing of the ambassador, the carabiniere and the WFP driver, according to the website Actualite.cd, citing a statement by the rebel group which also he had already denied having carried out an attack that is commonly ascribed to him, the one last April in which 17 people died, including 12 rangers of the Virunga National Park.
Congolese President Felix Antoine Tshisekedi“paid a visit” to the widow of the Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio killed yesterday in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was reported in a tweet from the Congolese website Infoplus by publishing a photo. Even with the masks you can recognize, all standing, the head of state and the Congolese premiere lady, Denise, the latter next to the wife of the slain ambassador, Mrs. Zakia. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio will send urgent information on the killing of the Italian ambassador in Congo tomorrow at 9 am in the Chamber. THE ATTACK A full-blown ambush, probably for kidnapping, which ended in tragedy . The Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio ,Mustapha Milambo , were killed in an ambush while traveling aboard a UN car in a region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, North Kivu, for years the scene of violent clashes between dozens of militias vying for control of the territory and its natural resources. The government of Kinshasa points the finger at the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (Fdlr), Hutu rebels known for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, who have established their stronghold in the ambush area, while Italy asks a detailed report to the United Nations.
The convoy, consisting of two cars of the World Food Program (WFP-WFP), was traveling north, on the road between Goma and Rutshuru, where the Italian diplomathe should have visited a school food distribution program of the UN agency , fresh from the Nobel Peace Prize. At 10.15 (9.15 in Italy), the two cars are stopped about 15 km from Goma, near Nyiaragongo, in the Virunga National Park, by a commando of 6 people who open fire, first shooting in the air, then killing the driver.
According to the first reconstructions reported by the governor of North Kivu, Carly Nzanzu Kasivita, the attackers take the diplomat and the police officer of the escort into the forest. When the alarm was triggered, a ranger patrol from the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, which is nearby, rushed to the scene, followed by forces of the local army. A firefight eruptsin which the attackers kill Iacovacci. Attanasio is also hit by the shots: by whom, it is still not clear. The lifeless body of the ambassador, wounded in the abdomen, is loaded on a pick-up by first responders, and then transferred to the hospital in Goma. Three other people would have been kidnapped, reports the Ministry of the Interior of Kinshasa, and there is also talk of some injured. The Congolese government stated that the provincial authorities of North Kivu were unaware of the ambassador’s presence in the area and that this did not allow them to provide him with adequate security measures, nor their timely arrival on site in “a part of the Country considered unstable and at the mercy of some national and foreign armed rebel groups “. Formed in the early 2000s, the FDLR are accused of several attacks in the area, including that of April 2020 in which 17 people died, including 12 ICCN rangers.
However, WFP reported that the road had previously been checked and declared safeto be traveled even “without safety escorts”. However, the Farnesina asked the UN to provide as soon as possible a detailed report on the attack in a place where Attanasio had gone at the invitation of the WFP.
In Italy, the death of Attanasio and Iacovacci was greeted with dismay and pain , from President Sergio Mattarella who spoke of “mourning for these servants of the state” to Prime Minister Mario Draghi who expressed the government’s condolences to the diplomat’s family, who leaves a wife and three little girls, and the young carabiniere who was supposed to get married in the summer. The terrible news reached Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maioin Brussels, where he was for the EU Foreign Council and where he received the unanimous condolences of his colleagues and European leaders. Immediately returning to Rome, the minister received messages of solidarity from the entire international community, from the UN to the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. And taking up the appeal of the political forces, unanimous in condolence and condemnation of the attack, he announced that he will report “as soon as possible to Parliament to clarify” the circumstances of the ambush still full of questions and on which the Rome prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.
On the phone with the Congolese colleague, Marie Tumba Nzeza, the minister asked “to shed light on the dynamics and responsibilities of the attack”, hoping that the authorities of Kinshasa offer “full cooperation in contacts and exchanges with the judiciary and the Italian security forces”.

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