Italy Mourns an Ambassador and His Bodyguard, Killed in Congo

Italians on Tuesday mourned the death of Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, who was killed in an ambush with his bodyguard and their driver while taking part in a humanitarian convoy with the World Food Program.

The national media were packed with tributes to Mr. Attanasio, 43, who was lauded as the youthful and humanitarian face of Italian diplomacy.

Mr. Attanasio’s killing struck a deep nerve in Italy, which has been under strain over the past year because of the pandemic and a political crisis that created weeks of uncertainty. Many Italians also remain sensitive to the fate of their nationals abroad after the brutal killing of a graduate student, Giulio Regeni, in Egypt in 2016.

Pictures of Mr. Attanasio surrounded by Congolese children, or posing with his wife and three small daughters, dominated the front pages of Italy’s dailies.

“Luca and Vittorio. The best of Italy,” read the headline of the Turin-based daily La Stampa, referring to Vittorio Iacovacci, the 30-year-old Italian military police officer who died with the ambassador and their Congolese driver, Mustapha Milambo of the World Food Program.

“Yesterday I couldn’t express to his family the deep sorrow of the entire Foreign Ministry and our sincere closeness,” Elisabetta Belloni, the ministry’s secretary general, wrote in an editorial in the daily Corriere della Sera. “Because silence and emotion prevailed.”