State funeral held for slain DRC ambassador, Carabiniere

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 25 - The State funeral for the late Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Luca Attanasio, and his Carabiniere police escort Vito Iacovacci, who were killed in an attack in the African country on Monday, took place at Rome's Santa Maria degli Angeli Basilica on Thursday.
    Premier Mario Draghi, Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and the Speakers of the Senate and the Lower House, Maria Elisabetta Casellati and Roberto Fico, were among the officials in attendance to pay their respects. The coffins of the slain servants of the State were covered by the Italian flag.
    The relatives of the two men were in the front row.
    These included Attanasio's widow, who was wearing a black veil and held her three young daughters in her arms.
    In the funeral homily, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said Attanasio and Iacovacci has put themselves at the service of other people "at the cost of losing heir own lives".
    "There is anguish that too many men are bewitched by money and plot the death of a brother," he added.
    "There is anguish because justice is not respected. "Luca Attanasio and Vittorio Iacovacci were torn away from this world by the claws of ferocious violence, which will only bring more pain.
    "Evil only brings more evil".
    Cardinal De Donatis also passed on the condolences of Pope Francis. Attanasio, Iacovacci and a Congolese driver, Mustapha Milambo, were killed on Monday while travelling from Goma to Rutshuru in the east of the African country where they were planning to visit a UN World Food Programme (WFP) school feeding programme.
    The DRC government has blamed the attack on Rwandan Hutu rebels, who have said Congo and Rwanda troops are to blame.
    Attanasio and Iacovacci were killed in an attempted kidnapping that tragically ended in a firefight and were not executed by their captors, autopsies performed in Rome on Wednesday suggest.
    (ANSA).