Ambassador Luca Attanasio Had a Salesian Heart

Luca Attanasio, Italy's ambassador to DRC, was a diplomat with a Salesian heart

(ANS – Goma, DRC – March 12, 2021) – While aggressions and attacks continue to rage in the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo – the Study Center for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights reports a further 45 civilian victims in various massacres within just ten days in the region – Salesian testimonies also continue to reach the ANS editorial office on the luminous figure of Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) murdered on February 22 in Goma, together with carabiniere officer escorting him, Vittorio Iacovacci, and their Congolese driver Mustafa Milambo.

Below is the press release issued by Jambo Vijana, the magazine for young people from Salesian works in the eastern DRC:

The young people welcomed at the Don Bosco Ngangi center in Goma learned with dismay, on Monday, February 22, the news of the death of Luca Attanasio. During his stay in the DRC, this man showed his affection for the many youth and children cared for by the Salesians of that house.

In the Salesian works of the eastern DRC in particular, we were able to discover that he believed in the power of love to overcome the weight of evil. His goodness, his generosity, his courage, and his love accompanied him until his death on this path toward his poorest friends. He believed, like us, that with the Salesian charism a better world is possible, especially for the younger generations.

He greatly appreciated our educational, formative, medical, safety, and psychosocial activities for the vulnerable children and youths of the Don Bosco Ngangi Youth Center....

Let us not forget his support, help, and advice for what he had already acknowledged as our many-sided and recurring vulnerabilities. Our mourning was also joined by Fr. Jean-Claude Ngoy and Fr. Albert Kabuge, former provincial and outgoing provincial of Central Africa. Fr. Kabuge, specifically, wrote: “May God welcome their souls into His Kingdom. My condolences to the families of our brothers who have just left us. May God help us all.”

Thanks to his social commitment, his passion for Africa and, especially for the DRC, his mission, and his work, he felt himself a full member of the family of humanitarian workers in these guerrilla zones.

On his part, Salesian Fr. Ghislain Nkiere, who works in Kinshasa, adds another testimony: “I met him just a month ago. I can say that he was a generous man, who always wanted to help others. He was a man who did not let himself be told about things, but wanted to see up close the difficulties in which that population held in check by armed groups lives. Ambassador Attanasio helped our home for street boys and girls. He came to visit us to bring food, but above all to meet the young. He was a person close to people. Precisely this desire to be close to people, living what they live, brought him close to danger.”