The men were kidnapped while traveling in a United Nations World Food Program convoy in eastern Congo.

Ambassador Luca Attanasio, his bodyguard Victoria Yakov Aci on WFP driver Mustafa Malambo were all killed.

The Italian funeral was attended by Prime Minister Mario Draghi at a church used for services for national leaders and cultural figures.

The caskets, draped in the Italian flag, were given a military salute as they were removed from the hearse is Cardinal Angelo Day.

Donati's said the death should prompt everyone to hear the cry of the people of Congo cruelly devastated by violence as it sees its sons and daughters die every day there are around 120 armed groups operating in eastern Congo on the country's Interior Ministry has blamed a Rwandan ethnic Hutu rebel militia called the FDLR for this attack.

The group has denied responsibility for what it called a cowardly assassination.