Vatican City, Feb 24, 2021 / 04:15 am
Pope Francis expressed his condolences on Tuesday after three people were killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy traveling in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to Congo, died of his wounds from the attack. Vittorio Iacovacci, an Italian Carabinieri officer, and Moustapha Milambo, their Congolese driver, were also killed.
The group had been traveling on Feb. 23 from Goma to visit the site of a humanitarian initiative by the World Food Program at a school in Rutshuru in the east of the country when the U.N. vehicles were ambushed.
In a Feb. 23 telegram to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Pope Francis wrote: "With pain, I learned about the tragic attack that occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo … I express heartfelt condolences to their families, the diplomatic corps, and the carabinieri on the death of these servants of peace."