43 year-old Luca Attanasio, Italy's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with 30 year-old Vittorio Iacovacci, a military police officer, and a Congolese driver are dead after a United Nations' World Food Program convoy was attack near the city of Goma. According to local officials, the attack is believed to have been an attempted kidnapping. Mr. Attanasio is the first ambassador to have been killed in the DR Congo since French ambassador Philippe Bernard was shot and killed during riots in the capital city of Kinshasa in 1997.

Carly Nzanzu, the governor of the North Kivu province, said that the United Nations vehicles were initially "ambushed by a group of 6 attackers" who killed the Congolese driver and took the passengers into the Virunga National Park. A patrol of Virunga National Park rangers intervened and successfully freed four people. However, the assailants shot the ambassador and military police officer before fleeing. Local media reports indicate that Mr. Attanasio died in a hospital near Goma, and several other passengers were injured in the incident.

As of now, it is still unclear who was behind the attack. While several armed groups are known to operate in and around the Virunga National Park, the UN World Food Program said that the attack took place "on a road that had previously been cleared for travel without security escorts". Currently, the Democratic Republic of Congo's army has deployed troops to search the area for the assailants.

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