GOMA, (DR Congo): Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was among three people killed on Monday when a UN convoy came under attack in the troubled east, DRC sources and the Italian government said.

Luca Attanasio died of his wounds after a World Food Programme (WFP) convoy came under gunfire near Goma while he was on a field trip, a senior diplomatic source said in Kinshasa.

The Italian government confirmed Attanasio’s death and said an Italian policeman, Vittorio Iacovacci, as well as a driver it did not identify, had also died. President Sergio Mattarella lashed what he called a “cowardly attack.”

“The Italian republic is in mourning for these servants of the state who lost their lives,” he said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio expressed his “great dismay and immense sorrow”, breaking off from a meeting in Brussels with EU counterparts to make an early return to Rome. “The circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet known and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened,” Di Maio said.