Luca Attanasio

Luca Attanasio (May 23, 1977 – February 22, 2021) was the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He died in an attack on a United Nations convoy in Eastern Congo in February 2021.

Career

Attanasio graduated with honors at the Luigi Bocconi Commercial University in 2001. He started his in diplomatic career, in 2003, at the Farnesina, as Directorate for Economic Affairs, Business Support Office, and then to the secretariat of the Directorate General for Africa. A year later he became deputy head secretariat of the undersecretary of state with responsibility for Africa and International Cooperation. Attanasio started his diplomatic career outside Italy in 2006, serving as the Economic and Commercial Office at the Italian Embassy in Bern (2006–2010) and the Regent Consul General in Casablanca, Morocco (2010–2013). 

In 2013 he returned to the Farnesina where he was appointed Head of the Secretariat of the Directorate General for Globalization and Global Affairs. He then returned to Africa as first counselor at the Italian embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2015. Since 5 September 2017 he has been head of mission in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. From 31 October 2019 he was confirmed on site as an Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Ambassador accredited in the DRC.

Death

Luca Attanasio was killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. An Italian military police officer and a third person accompanying him were also killed. It was believed to be an attempted kidnap by assailants. Attanasio died in hospital on 22 February 2021, at the age of 43.