Militias active – Italian ambassador killed in Eastern Congo – News

• In Eastern Congo, armed attackers ambushed a World Food Program (WFP) convoy, killing the Italian ambassador.
• An Italian military policeman and the driver were also killed.
•  The  exact circumstances of the attack, which occurred near the city of Goma, are still unclear. Several militias are active in the region.

 The  Foreign Ministry in Rome confirmed the death of the ambassador and a security officer. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio traveled prematurely from a meeting in Brussels to Italy because of the incident, as the news agency Ansa wrote.

 The  Congolese police were surprised at the presence of the ambassador in the region and the fact that he was traveling without police protection. He was reportedly on the way to the well-known Virunga National Park on the border with Uganda and Rwanda.

 The  Unesco World Heritage Site is famous for the endangered mountain gorillas that only live in these three countries.

 The  rangers there are often threatened by militias and poachers, and the rare gorillas are killed again and again.

Six rangers were already killed in January

As recently as January, six rangers were killed there and another seriously injured. Back then, rebels were blamed for the attack. Several militias are active in Eastern Congo, whose main aim is to control the valuable mineral resources.

According to human rights activists, at least 170 people have been kidnapped near Virunga National Park in three years.

 The  victims – many of them women – were beaten, tortured, raped and blackmailed into cash payments, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch reported last year. She blamed criminal gangs for this.