Italian Embassy In Moscow Lowers Flags In Memory Of Ambassador Killed In DRC

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd February, 2021) The Italian Embassy in Moscow has lowered flags in the memory of Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio, Italian policeman Vittorio Iacovacci and the World food Program's (WFP) driver Mustafa Milambo who were recently killed in a terrorist attack in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the embassy said on Tuesday.

On Monday, unidentified militants carried out an attack against a WFP convoy traveling in the DRC's North Kivu province to visit a feeding program in a school in the town of Rutshuru, which claimed the lives of Attanasio, Iacovacci and Milambo.

"Lowered flags at the Italian Embassy in Moscow in connection with dramatic deaths of Italian Ambassador to the DR of the Congo Luca Attanasio, carabinier Vittorio Iacovacci and driver Mustafa Milambo who were killed during a working trip in a barbaric attack on the UN convoy," the embassy wrote on Twitter.

DRC's North Kivu, located next to the border with Rwanda and Uganda, is the home province of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group that brings together Islamists 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). The United Nations holds the group responsible for killing hundreds of civilians.