POST-INCIDENT REPORT:

The Killing of Italian Ambassador

in the Democratic Republic
of Congo

WARNING: This report

contains graphic imagery.

Written by:
Michael McCabe, CEO

Date of report:
23rd February 2021
Executive Summary

• Six armed men stopped the convoy of Ambassador Luca Attanasio and attempted to kidnap him and his team.
They shot his driver to gain compliance.
• Responding security forces led to the attackers shooting and killing the ambassador’s Italian security guard,
as well as fatally shooting the ambassador in the abdomen.
• The attack appeared to be an attempted kidnap gone wrong and it is not known who conducted the attack at
this time.
• The attack highlights the ongoing threat in the area of kidnap attempt and direct attack by armed groups.

Aim

The aim of this document is to provide a timely and detailed account of the 22nd February 2021 attack on the Italian
Ambassador and his team in the Nyiragongo territory, North of Goma.

Attack Details

Image 1: Locations of Kinshasa, Goma and where the attack took place. [Source: Intelligence Fusion]

Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio had reportedly been working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since
2017. Prior to this, he had joined the diplomatic service in 2003 and had spent time in Morocco and Nigeria.
According to a statement from the DRC presidency, Ambassador Attanasio reportedly arrived in Goma on Friday
19th February 2021.

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 Image 2: Locations of Goma, Kiwanja, N2 route and incident location. [Source: Intelligence Fusion]
Route

On Monday 22nd February 2021 at 09:27hrs, a convoy of two vehicles of the World Food Programme left Goma for
the municipality of Kiwanja, in the territory of Rutshuru, to visit one of the World Food Programme’s routine school
feeding programmes. According to Google Maps, this is a distance of 73.2 km, which would take approximately 2h 24
mins to drive. Reports suggest that there were seven people in the convoy.

Image 3: Image of the ambassador, his team and the vehicles prior to the road move from Goma.

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Images on social media appear to show the ambassador (1) and his team prior to them departing to Kiwanja - when
making a comparison of this image and the image of the injured ambassador being medically evacuated from the
incident location, the matching clothing appears to confirm that this image was taken prior to the road move.

Image 4: Comparison of the ambassador’s clothing prior to the road move and once
he was injured and medically evacuated.

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 Image 5: Image of the ambassador, his team and the vehicles prior to the road move from Goma.

Examining the image prior to the road move further, we can see the ambassador’s security guard, Carabiniere Vittorio
Iacovacci (2), appears to be preparing to open the rear left passenger door for the ambassador, which suggests that
the ambassador was travelling in the rear vehicle, as long as this configuration did not change. The rear vehicle has
only one notable difference to the front vehicle, a yellow object attached to the roof rack, annotated with a red
rectangle on the image. There are 6 people visible in total on this image. Persons 3-6 are unknown, although person
3 is possibly the man later seen holding the ambassador during the medical evacuation and who was filmed giving
his account at what happened later at the medical facility.

The convoy was reportedly attacked 15km North of Goma, which would place the incident in the area of Kibati.

Image 6: Approximate location 15km North of Goma. [Source: Intelligence Fusion]

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In a statement by the office of DRC President Félix Tshisekedi, the vehicles were ambushed by a group of six attackers,
who were armed with machetes and Kalashnikovs. Le Monde reported that the six armed men blocked the road, and
forced the seven people to get out of their vehicles.

COMMENT: It takes approximately 30 mins to get to this location from Goma, therefore if the convoy left at 09:27hrs,
this attack occurred around 10:00hrs. COMMENT ENDS

Carly Nzanzu Kasivita, the governor of North Kivu, said they were stopped about 15 kilometres outside the regional
capital by six attackers who fired warning shots before taking the survivors into the bush in an apparent kidnap
attempt. The driver was reportedly killed to force the rest to leave the road and go deep into the Virunga National
Park.

COMMENT: Although we have not been able to identify the UN WFP vehicle’s locations, it appears that the lead vehicle
had the rear left window broken, and ended up on a roadside. The rear vehicle, which we believe was likely carrying
the ambassador, appears to have been taken to a different location, and was not damaged. An image too graphic to
publish appears to show the driver, Moustapha Milambo, dead with a wound through his neck. COMMENT ENDS

Image 7: Comparison of vehicles pre and post-attack.

According to Le Monde, the sound of the shots alerted the soldiers of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC, the
Congolese army) and the eco-guards of the park, who then moved towards the scene of the attack.

Although we do not know the exact location of the attack, there are two videos which allow us to geolocate where
security forces were focused. In this video, there is a soldier running along the road firing his weapon, although it is
not known what he is firing at.

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 Image 8: Soldier firing into the bush in
the area of the three pylons.

In one clip from the video, you can see three towers adjacent to the road.

Image 9: Still image of three pylons in video.

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 Image 10: Location of three pylons [Source: Google Maps]

These three towers appear to be located 23km North of Goma, near to Buhumba. COMMENT: This suggests that the
attackers either transported the people in the convoy 8km further North, before they were intercepted by security
forces, or the incident actually took place further North than suggested in some reports. COMMENT ENDS

Image 11: Location 15km North of Goma and three towers [Source: Intelligence Fusion]

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In another video on social media which appears to show UN troops searching the area of the attack, you can also see
the three pylons suggesting that this is an area linked to the attack.

Image 12: UN soldiers searching in the area of the three pylons (Le Monde).

At some point, the Virunga National Park Rangers intervened. Reports suggest that the attackers were attempting to
flee with some people from the convoy - however, when the park rangers were 500m away, they then shot and killed
the security guard, Vittorio Iacovacci, and shot the ambassador in the abdomen.

According to a statement from the DRC presidency, the attackers shot Ambassador Attanasio and Carabiniere
Iacovacci at point blank range. Four people were rescued by the park rangers; however, it is also believed that they
sustained injuries.

The ambassador was transported to a hospital in Goma in a critical condition, however, he later died of his injuries.

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 Image 13: Ambassador Luca Attanasio being evacuated from the scene with a member of his team holding him in his arms.

After the attack, likely at the hospital, the man who was holding the ambassador in his arms in the image above and
likely unknown person 3 in the pre-mission picture was filmed giving his account of what happened in the incident.

The DRC Army stated that its troops were searching the area for the assailants.

The interior ministry has accused a Hutu rebel group known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
(FDLR) of conducting the attack. According to witnesses, the attackers spoke in Kinyarwanda, the language spoken
in Rwanda. However, as Pierre Boisselet, coordinator of the Kivu security barometer, stated, “The FDLR are not the
only ones to speak Kinyarwanda, other groups present in the region speak it, such as the Nyatura or the ex-M23.”

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 Image 14: The Landscape of Armed groups in Eastern Congo. Kivu Security Tracker February 2021. [Source]

Using the Kivu Security Tracker, we have annotated on the map with a yellow pin the assessed location of the attack.
You can see that the attack occurred next to area 41, which is an area of control of the armed group Nyatura
Turaramambiwe (Rutshuru), but also in this area are Nyatura CMC (area 37), FDLR-FOCA (area 38) and M23 (area 39).

Interpreting the Attack

Although the identity of the group behind the attack remains unknown, the latest incident exemplifies the challenges
that local security forces face with insecurity. During 2020, between October and September, there were two cases
where protesters in Kibumba and Rugari, both in the vicinity of the attack location, mounted barricades on the RN2
to protest against insecurity.

Given the size of the group and the way in which the group carried out the attack, it is likely that kidnapping was their
motive rather than a deliberate attack against the Italian ambassador: rising levels of kidnappings and armed
robberies in western and northwestern Goma were - and remain - a growing concern.

Several incidents related to ambushes, kidnapping, armed robbery and rape have been recorded in the immediate
vicinity of the attack location, and WFP and the vehicles of other humanitarian organisations have been the target of
ambushes by armed and criminal groups in eastern DRC.

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Threat History

The DRC has grappled with numerous conflicts in the past few decades, often linked to attempts to control mineral
resources. There are still scores of militias and criminal groups who operate in eastern DRC. Ambassador Luca
Attanasio is the first ambassador to be killed in the country since French ambassador Philippe Bernard was shot dead
during riots in the capital, Kinshasa, in 1997.

The attack occurred on a road that had previously been cleared for travel without security escorts. “There was no sign
that an attack was going to occur in this area. The number of incidents declared by the populations had been falling
in recent weeks and we were in the process of reducing the number of red roads, those which must be used only
under the escort of MONUSCO ”, stated Jean Metenier, head of the office of the 'Unicef in Goma.

Looking at Intelligence Fusion’s data, however, we can see that there is a historical pattern of ambushes occurring
North of Goma.

Image 15: Ambush incidents in the area of Goma [Source: Intelligence Fusion]

In the past year, there have been two other incidents in close proximity to this attack, where military convoys were
attacked by gunmen.

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 Image 16: Recent ambush incidents in the area of this attack [Source: Intelligence Fusion]

The most recent incident occurred on 10th Jan 2021 in Kabuhendo, where armed men ambushed ONVI guards.
Although this incident occurred North of Kiwanja, it still showed the threat persisted in this area.

Image 17: Ambush incidents in the area of Goma [Source: Intelligence Fusion]

When looking at kidnapping incidents in the area of Goma and the mission location, we can see that the kidnap threat
is still significant. I have highlighted the most recent incidents from the past six months, which would also suggest
that a kidnap attempt was possible.

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 Image 18: Kidnap incidents in the area of Goma. [Source: Intelligence Fusion]

With the attack most likely to have been a failed kidnapping attempt, going by the reported actions of the
perpetrators, and the historic - and ongoing - activity in the area, it seems that this incident does potentially fit into
an existing pattern of kidnap attempts in the region - and looking at the number of incidents logged on the Intelligence
Fusion platform in the area of Goma, it would appear that there was some potential risk.

Rather than viewing it through the lens of the extraordinary circumstances of the first ambassadorial death in the
DRC since 1997, the attack can instead be seen as a more typical event in this region; one that nevertheless had tragic
consequences for Ambassador Attanasio, Carabiniere Iacovacci and their driver.

If your knowledge of the threat landscape is inaccurate, how can you effectively protect your assets?

Find out how intelligence-led security can help you better protect your people,
take out your free trial of Intelligence Fusion.

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Post Incident Report
Sources

https://www.statecraft.co.in/article/italian-ambassador-to-drc-killed-in-kidnapping-attempt-on-un-wfp-convoy

https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/world/italian-ambassador-one-of-three-killed-in-congo-kidnap-attempt/ar-
BB1dTNUU?ocid=msedgdhp

https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-africa-56151600

https://news-yahoo-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/italian-ambassador-killed-dr-congo-
105744841.html

https://www.facebook.com/Gomafleva/photos/a.1691073870991142/3582680165163827/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/edgardogordo_an-attack-to-the-united-nations-is-an-attack-activity-
6769865681887338496-LwlT/

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2021/02/23/di-maio-to-report-on-dr-congo-attack-shortly_f638f383-3b97-41e7-
b583-42c2a0c118fe.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/22/africa/italian-ambassador-dead-
intl/index.html?fbclid=IwAR39DyWbrCLRSvXC_sWMvrTOa_sMfOTydRcrNlAvWgNbRYN81hxLWXWwItA

https://www.facebook.com/yesyouthscan/videos/1396761490673952/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/john-mutombo-b96143189_north-kivudrcongo-ping-pong-about-the-perpetrators-
activity-6769880582563381248-rbmi/

https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2021/02/23/l-ambassadeur-d-italie-meurt-dans-une-embuscade-dans-l-est-
de-la-rdc_6070914_3212.html?fbclid=IwAR2vHmAm5nz_lnj5pCWjTyj9TCrHDeY-ySAsCcke_P4lHQ8-9_o8LFcXg6o

https://kivusecurity.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/reports/39/2021%20KST%20report%20EN.pdf

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