Italy's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo killed in an attack.

 

UN Peacekeepers at the site of the attack. Reuters. 

Italy's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was killed in an attack in the country along with an Italian body guard and Congolese driver. Reuters. The ambassador, Luca Attanasio was hit in the abdomen during a gunfight. The attackers shot and killed the Congolese driver and then tried to kidnap the ambassador but park rangers arrived and engaged the kidnappers. No one has taken responsibility but Congolese authorities have blamed Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) a Hutu militia that was founded by people responsible for the Rwandan genocide. Ambassador Attanasi was working on a food program. 

My Comment.

Whenever an ambassador is murdered it is a huge deal. Ambassadors are the way to prevent wars and make sure that lines of communication remain open. It's an affront to everyone when an ambassador is killed and it's almost guaranteed to draw a response. The government in Congo will have to do something as Italy is going to be furious that one of their diplomats was killed.

It's unclear how ambassador Attanasio died, at least based on what the article said. It seems as though this was a kidnapping attempt that went bad and that the kidnappers weren't indenting to kill him at first. But when the park rangers showed up Attanasio died in the gunfight. It's unclear if he was killed by the kidnappers or friendly fire but I guess it doesn't matter too much. The kidnappers set this into motion so they are responsible for it. 

I don't know much about the FDLR. They are a militia and they were made up of people of who were responsible for the Rwandan genocide. They are bad people but I didn't know they were murdering an ambassador bad. 

Killing people trying to feed your country seems like a pretty evil act even if there wasn't an ambassador involved. The ambassador was working with a food program that fed children so killing him is an exceptionally evil act. 

I am not sure what the motivation was for this attack. My guess is that it was an attempt at kidnapping for profit. An ambassador would probably netted quite a bit of profit, assuming it could have been collected. 

In practice though it's a bad plan. Most governments don't negotiate with terrorists and even if they did the attackers botched the kidnapping. But had they pulled it off my guess is the kidnappers would have ended up dead in the end.