February 22, 2021near Goma, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congoa commando attacks a World Food Program (‘WFP’) convoy and in the attack the Italian ambassador loses his life in the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio, the carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci and the driver Mustapha Milambo. To reconstruct the story, more than five years after the facts, it is ‘The Ambassador. The death of Luca Attanasio between truth and justice’, the book edited by Pierfrancesco Majorinoregional councilor of Lombardy, member of the national secretariat of the Democratic Party and former European parliamentarian, e the journalist and communicator Daniele De Lucapublished by Sulfur Publisherwhich reconstructs the events of that day, the investigations and the judicial proceedings that have taken place over the years, giving voice to those who continue to ask for full light to be shed on what happened. The volume, now in bookstores, also tells who Luca Attanasio wasa diplomat who had chosen to live his role by going beyond institutional protocols and relationships, dedicating particular attention to the most fragile people and communities.
A commitment he also carried out together with his wife Zakia Seddiki, through humanitarian projects to support the Congolese population. Alongside the memory of the ambassador, the book addresses the many questions that still accompany his death: from the circumstances of the ambush to the security measures adopted during the mission, up to the difficulties encountered in investigations and judicial proceedings. Issues that are back in the news even after the request for dismissal made by the Rome prosecutor’s office in September 2026 as part of a tranche of investigation. “Many people want to dismiss this case. Not us”, writes Pierfrancesco Majorino in the introduction to the volume. Words that summarize the meaning of the book and the willingness to continue searching for the truthso that the memory of the three victims is not exhausted by the commemorations. An important space is also dedicated to the Attanasio family and their long battle for the truth. In the interview contained in the volume, Salvatore Attanasio, Luca’s father, looks back on these yearsthe pain of losing her son and the determination not to give up in the face of the many questions that remain open. As Salvatore Attanasio states in the book “It’s really difficult to explain what I feel today, more than five years after Luca’s death. We cannot say that the State has completely abandoned us, but as regards the judicial aspect, the search for truth and justice, yes. It is inexplicable that the State remained helpless“. “The murder of an Ambassador is not a news story, it is an attack on the State, on the country. And the State has the duty to intervene in the assassination of one of its direct representatives”, he continued, convinced that “the State had a moral obligation to become a civil party for the assassination of one of its senior officials”.
He doesn’t give up and continue to search for the truth too Dario Iacovacci, brother of Carabiniere Vittorio: “The Italian State was and is the only entity that can fully shed light on what happened and take full action so that truth and justice can be achieved regarding my brother’s death. But he hasn’t done anything yet. And we don’t know why”, he states in the testimony contained in the book. The volume also contains contributions from journalists Luca Attanasio, Tony Capuozzo and Giusy Baioni, Giuseppe Augurusa, Marco Lombardo and Susanna Camusso and a conversation with Rocco Curcio, lawyer of the Attanasio family. “A book – we read in the presentation – which does not want to let this story be archived and which asks the institutions an uncomfortable question: why wasn’t everything possible done to give justice to those who represented our country with courage and humanity?”.