by Arianna Monticelli
“Your departure will not become an absence.” The phrase pronounced by the Archbishop of Milan, Monsignor Mario Delpini, in February 2021, during the funeral of the Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio it seemed then – to believers and non-believers – a support in trying to deal with an enormous and violent loss. Today those words appear with a new clarity: that departure did not generate a void but a transformation, a legacy of shared gestures, in remembering a man of peace and a diplomat with uncommon gifts.
Five years have passed since the killing of the ambassador, since that February 22, 2021 in which in an ambush in the Democratic Republic of Congo in addition to him, the carabiniere who acted as his escort, Vittorio Iacovacci, and the Congolese driver, Mustapha Milambo, also lost their lives. At the time of the attack they were with other people on a United Nations World Food Program convoy, traveling on a road in North Kivu, on the border with Rwanda.
Attanasio was 43 years old and one of the youngest and most brilliant Italian diplomats. His wife Zakia Seddiki and his three young daughters were waiting for him shortly in Kinshasa. In Limbiate (Monza and Brianza), his city of origin, mother Alida and father Salvatore had spoken to him on the phone a few hours before the tragedy. The usual morning greeting before embarking on what was supposed to be another long day of meetings and relationships.
That phrase of Monsignor Delpini, year after year, has been revealed in facts. Luca Attanasio is not gone. His example continues to give rise to actions, choices and projects facts of the commitment of many, who act in the wake of his way of being, in life and in his institutional role. His open gaze to the world and ability to build bridges continue to generate encounters and inspire paths. The ambassador had brought a breath of fresh air to the diplomatic style, combining competence and seriousness with empathy and enthusiasm. A man of dialogue, for diplomacy seen as a responsibility exercised with humanity: abilities recognized by many parties. His was an institutional role whose importance he felt, but also an action of proximity, for his compatriots and for the local people, from Morocco to Nigeria, up to Congo.
«When people called him Excellency, he smiled and replied “I’m Luca”, inviting everyone to lower those barriers that often hinder real dialogue» his father Salvatore tells us. It was his natural way of building concrete relationships, with seriousness but without formalism. Mother Alida he recalls his great negotiating ability: «He had a natural ability to listen and find common ground, even when it seemed difficult». His innate resourcefulness, preparation cultivated through years of training and studies and great faith helped him.
A lifestyle that guided him since he was a boy, involved in the oratory and volunteering – in the parish of San Giorgio di Limbiate – and then as a student, at Bocconi University in Milan and at ISPI, the Institute for International Political Studies, where he prepared to take his first steps in the world of diplomacy. He cultivated a deep bond with Taizé – the monastic community ecumenical organization founded by Brother Roger in France. As a boy he returned there every time he could: to nourish his faith but also to breathe silence and prayer that invite sharing between peoples. His parents wanted to go to Taizè in 2022: they found many testimonies and a large photograph of their son, welcoming those who arrive.
Being a citizen of the world, curious and enthusiastic, always ready to open up and give of himself to others was his way of acting on a daily basis, from his lifelong friends to the Farnesina, from Limbiate to Kinshasa. Today Don Francesco Barbieri operates in the Congolese capital, having long carried out his ministry in Limbiate, where he met Attanasio. Two years after the ambassador’s disappearance, the priest of the Diocese of Milan asked to have an experience fidei donum. Its destination was not accidental. Since 2023 Don Barbieri has been in Kinshasa, alongside Don Maurizio Canclini, in the NGO Cenacle which deals with various communities and projects for children with disabilities and street children.
There are around 45 thousand street children in the African megalopolis. Ambassador Attanasio, who had just arrived in Congo, with his wife became involved, both in the role of diplomat and in his free time, with dedicated projects and supporting numerous missionaries. In 2017 the Mama Sofia association was born on the initiative of his wife; he was its honorary president. In 2021, Attanasio’s widow created the Mama Sofia Foundation in Italy, involved in projects around the world, for the protection of children and young people in difficult conditions. In Congo the humanitarian commitment has never stopped and the work that the ambassador had outlined is generative. He helped many young Congolese people finish their studies in Italy: today they are people involved in various fields for their country. The Friends of Luca Attanasio association was also born: people with different experiences and geographical origins who in the name of the diplomat pursue the constitutional principles of equality, peace and equal social dignity. They collaborate with schools and universities to raise awareness among young people and promote initiatives that focus on the message of peace and solidarity between peoples.
THE Luca’s parents are the first who never tire of talking about their son’s life in schools, in oratories, with associations throughout Italy who ask for testimony. On their journey they cannot avoid talking about their search for the truth about what happened on the road to Goma. They share this commitment with the family of Carabiniere Iacovacci and with associations and ordinary citizens who have joined together in recent years. They don’t believe the version of the gang assault raging in that area, which led to the death sentence – later changed to life imprisonment – of six people in Kinshasa, in a somewhat incomplete trial. In Rome, the proceedings instead ended with the “no place to proceed” for lThe impossibility of investigating two leaders of the UN WFP – accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of manslaughter – who have invoked diplomatic immunity. In November 2025, a bill to establish a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry was introduced. We await the discussion in the Senate, in the hope of a real transversal commitment to knowing the truth about what happened.
Places and spaces dedicated to the ambassador continue to multiply throughout Italy: in Reggio Calabria there is a bridge on the seafront, in Asiago a path of peace in places marked by war. In a few days, in Cesano Maderno (Monza and Brianza) they will dedicate the council chamber to him; in Cormano, on the outskirts of Milan, a square. Tomorrow, Sunday 22 February, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, will be in Limbiate to celebrate a mass on the anniversary of the ambush. It will be a day full of events, which will continue until the month of March, also with the third year of the photographic competition in memory: it is called “Dialogues” to recall one of the main values of Attanasio’s life and commitment, as a man and as a diplomat.
