WFP in their statement informed that “A number of other passengers travelling with the delegation sustained injuries during the attack. The three fatalities have been identified as the Italian Ambassador to DRC, Luca Attanasio, an Italian embassy official, and a WFP driver. The delegation was travelling from Goma to visit a WFP school feeding programme in Rutshuru when the incident took place. 

WFP will work with national authorities to determine the details behind the attack, which occurred on a road that had previously been cleared for travel without security escorts.

WFP is in close contact with the Italian authorities through its offices at its Rome headquarters and in the DRC.”

Minister Luigi Di Maio in his announcement stated that he “learned with great dismay and immense pain of the death today of our Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo and of a soldier from the Carabinieri. Two servants of the state who were violently torn from us in the fulfillment of their duty. The circumstances of this brutal attack are still unclear and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened. Today the state mourns the loss of two of its exemplary children and gathers around their families and friends and colleagues at the Farnesina and in the Carabinieri.”