Congo, Italy dispatch investigators into ambassador's death

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — An Italian Carabinieri unit is expected in Congo Tuesday to investigate the killings of the Italian ambassador to Congo, an Italian Carabinieri police officer and their driver in the country's east.

Congolese authorities and members of the United Nations Mission in Congo are also expected in Goma, in eastern Congo to look into the killings.

Luca Attanasio, the ambassador to Congo since 2017, Carabinieri officer Vittorio Iacovacci and their driver Moustapha Milambo were killed Monday in an ambush as their World Food Program convoy was traveling from Goma, Congo’s eastern regional capital, to visit a WFP school project in Rutshuru, the U.N. agency said.

Congo’s interior ministry said four others in the convoy were kidnapped, but one person has since been found by Congo’s army.

The body of the ambassador and the officer will be flown to Congo's capital, Kinshasa, Monday and then to Rome, according to local media reports.

Congo’s government has blamed the killings on the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the Rwandan Hutu rebel group known as FDLR.

The rebel group, however, on Tuesday, denied responsibility for the attack.

“The FDLR declares that there is nothing to implicate it in the attack that resulted in the death of the Italian ambassador and asks that Congolese authorities and MONUSCO to do all they can to shed light on those responsible for this ignoble assassination,” rebel spokesman Cure Ngoma said in a statement.

The rebel group noted the attack took place in the “three antennas” area near Goma and the border of Rwanda and close to Congolese and Rwandan military positions. It blamed the killings on those forces.

Eastern Congo is home to myriad rebel groups all vying for control of parts of the mineral-rich,...