Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced Tuesday that they have arrested suspected perpetrators of the attack in which Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio was killed on February 22, 2021, in the eastern part of that country.
“Mr. Governor, I present to you three groups of criminals who have brought grief to the city of Goma. Among them, the group that attacked the convoy of the Italian ambassador,” said the police commander of North Kivu province, General Aba Van Ang, during a ceremony in Goma, its capital, filmed by some journalists.
According to him, the man suspected of shooting the ambassador, who goes by the name of “Aspirant”, “is on the run”. But “here is Bahati and the second in the group is Balume,” he added to the governor, Lieutenant General Constant Ndima Kongba, in front of six young men sitting on the ground, flanked by armed police.
“We know where Aspirant is, we hope to find him,” the police chief added. When “Aspirant” shot the ambassador, “they regretted a lot”, because the criminals intended to kidnap the diplomat and ask for a million dollars for his release, he said.
He said the group to which the men belonged – arrested under circumstances he did not specify – was also responsible for other recent kidnappings in the region, including of members of humanitarian organizations. The other two “groups” presented to the governor are accused by the police of committing various murders and criminal attacks.
The Italian ambassador to the DRC, Luca Attanasio, 43, died on February 22, 2021, after being shot and wounded when the World Food Programme (WFP) convoy in which he was traveling was ambushed north of Goma, on the outskirts of Virunga National Park.
His Italian bodyguard, Carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci, and a Congolese WFP driver, Mustapha Milambo, were also killed.