Canada's Top Diplomat Calls For End To Violence In DRC After Italian Envoy Assassinated

TORONTO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd February, 2021) Canada's Foreign Minister Marc Garneau called for an end of the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after the Italian ambassador to that country and two members of an international delegation travelling with him were assassinated.

Earlier on Monday, the World food Program (WFP) said three people were killed, including Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio in an attack on a delegation traveling in the North Kivu province to visit a WFP school feeding program in the town of Rutshuru.

"Canada is saddened and shocked by the attack in Eastern DRC that claimed the lives of Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio and two others.

Our condolences go out to the loved ones of the Italian and Congolese victims. We must put an end to the violence that continues in the DRC," Garneau said on Monday via Twitter.

North Kivu, located next to the border with Rwanda and Uganda, is a home province of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group that brings together Islamic extremists and forces opposed to longtime Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. The ADF has operated in the province since the late 1990s. In 2017, the group swore allegiance to the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia).