Italian FM holds phone call with DRC counterpart

ROME

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio held a phone call Monday with his counterpart in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Marie Tumba Nzeza, on the attack on a UN convoy in the DRC.

Italy's Foreign Ministry confirmed the killing of ambassador Luca Attanasio and an Italian Carabinieri officer, Vittorio Iacovacci.

Nzeza accepted Italy's request for full cooperation with the Italian judiciary to reveal the dynamics of the incident.

Meanwhile, the Italian Prime Ministry lowered their flags to half-mast in memory of Ambassador Attanasio and officer Iacovacci.

Attanasio and Iacovacci were among three people killed Monday in an attack on a UN convoy in the restive Democratic Republic of Congo, said local and Italian authorities.

According to local sources, the convoy was attacked in an attempted kidnapping near Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in the country’s east.

Attanasio, 43, Iacovacci, 30, and their Congolese World Food Program (WFP) driver – whose name has not been released – were confirmed dead in the ambush.