Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to the Congo, was among seven people who were ambushed and kidnapped by terrorists near the Virunga National Park. They took the victim inside the park.
The Virunga National Park Rangers managed to rescue four of the victims. Attanasio, an Italian military police officer, and a Congolese chauffeur died. The kidnappers began shooting victims as the Rangers started their assault. The Virunga Park Rangers appear in many documentaries and battle terrorist groups and heavily armed poachers.
The seven victims were on a humanitarian mission with the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP). They were traveling to Goma to visit school children.
The Italian Interior Minister said the Hutu terrorist group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda [DFLR] was the suspected culprit.
Six members of the Virunga National Park Rangers were murdered by Mai-Mai (generic term for any local paramilitaries) last month.
In May of 2020, 12 Virunga National Park Rangers and 4 civilians were murdered by the DFLR
