UPDATED: Alleged killers of Italian Ambassador Attanasio arrested in Congo
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The Congolese police have allegedly arrested the alleged killers of the Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio, killed in an ambush on 22 February 2021 together with the carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci and the driver Mustapha Milambo. North Kivu authorities announced this at a press conference in Goma.
According to the police, the initial idea was to kidnap the ambassador to obtain a ransom of 1 million dollars.
#RDC🇨🇩La police congolaise a présenté ce mardi 18 janvier au gouverneur militaire du Nord-Kivu, les présumés assassins de l'ambassadeur italien, #Luca Attanasio, assassiné en février 2021,et l'homme d'affaires, #Simba Ngezayo, tué en novembre 2020. @YesicaFischpic.twitter.com/3vr5Twdu0O
It was not immediately known when the arrests took place or when a trial might begin. The chief suspect in the ambassador’s killing, identified only as a man named Aspirant, remains at large, police said.
The Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Luca Attanasio, and a carabiniere from the escort, Vittorio Iacovacci, were killed last February in an attack on a United Nations convoy in the Virunga park, in the eastern part of the country.
The Italian diplomat was involved in an ambush conducted by armed militiamen against UN vehicles in transit on a road north of the city of Goma, the capital of the eastern Congolese province of North Kivu.
Photo – An undated handout photo made available by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ambassador to DR Congo, Luca Attanasio. EPA-EFE/ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY HANDOUT
