KINSHASA, Congo—Six males in Congo have been sentenced to life in jail on Friday for the 2021 homicide of Italy’s ambassador and two others.
The sentence was introduced by a army tribunal within the capital, Kinshasa, following a six-month trial.
Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to Congo since 2017, was one in all three individuals killed in February 2021 in an ambush on a World Meals Program convoy that was touring from Goma, Congo’s japanese regional capital, to go to a WFP college challenge in Rutshuru.
Italian safety officer Vittorio Iacovacci and driver Moustapha Milambo have been additionally killed.
Violence has been simmering in japanese Congo for many years as greater than 120 armed teams struggle for energy, sources, land, and a few to guard their communities.
A number of armed teams are energetic within the particular space of the assault together with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which is a Rwandan Hutu insurgent group often known as FDLR, the Nyatura militia and M23 rebels.
The assault occurred in the identical space the place two Britons have been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in 2018, although they have been launched days later.
Congo’s authorities initially blamed the killings on FDLR. who denied duty for the assault.
The prosecution stated the boys have been a part of a legal gang and had known as for the loss of life sentence. They accused the defendants of making an attempt to kidnap the ambassador so they may demand a ransom and stated the preliminary intent was to not kill him. 5 of these sentenced are within the N’Dolo army jail in Kinshasa whereas the sixth man continues to be on the run.
The protection stated their purchasers have been tortured into confessing and has appealed the choice, which might launch a brand new trial within the army courtroom. “All of them declare their innocence pure and easy,” stated Joseph Amzati one of many protection attorneys.
By Jean-Yves Kamale
