Giovanni Lo Porto, killed in US drone strike, was ‘incredibly loyal’ friend
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Version 0 of 1. The death of Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian aid worker who the White House said was mistakenly killed during a strike against al-Qaida in January, has left his colleagues “devastated”, their hopes now dashed that he might still be found alive after his 2012 abduction. Related: Obama regrets drone strike that killed hostages but hails 'transparent' response “We were completely taken aback by this news,” said Simone Pott, a spokeswoman for Welthungerhilfe, a German relief agency. “We are completely devastated here at the office because we were still hoping he could be freed and of course our thoughts and our hearts go out to his family.” In Palermo, Sicily, where Lo Porto was from, his mother was lost for words. “Leave me along with my pain,” she told the Ansa news agency. On Thursday the White House said that Lo Porto had been mistakenly killed in January, along with an American hostage, Warren Weinstein, in a strike on an al-Qaida compound near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In a statement the White House said Barack Obama “takes full responsibility” for the deaths. The Italian foreign ministry said it had tried tirelessly for three years to find Lo Porto and return him to his family. “The conclusion unfortunately was different because of the tragic and fatal error of our American allies, which was acknowledged by President Obama. The responsibility of his death and the death of Warren Weinstein … rests entirely with the terrorists.” Lo Porto’s brother told La Repubblica that he had learned the news of his brother’s death that morning. “I do not have much to add. Obama has apologised? Thanks,” he said. The news of Lo Porto’s death was all the more tragic because a colleague and fellow hostage, a German named Bernd Mühlenbeck, who had been taken with him by force from the house they shared in Pakistan, was freed last October. Lo Porto was described by friends and colleagues as outgoing and a “very lively man” who was interested in other countries and cultures. He had studied at London Metropolitan University, and travelled to the Punjab region in January 2012. At the time of his abduction he was working as a project manager in Pakistan to help sanitise drinking water following devastating floods in the country in 2010. People who knew him insist that he was not an amateur when it came to working in dangerous situations. “For his age he was very experienced, because he was in Pakistan before. He had worked in Haiti after the earthquake. He knew what he was doing,” Pott said. He had also received training from Welthungershilfe, including what to do in case of an abduction. “Every colleague gets this security briefing. They all knew that there will be risks at the end that you cannot avoid,” Pott said. Few details are known about whether Lo Porto and Mühlenbeck remained in captivity together or why Mühlenbeck was freed while Lo Porto remained a hostage. In 2012, two years before his release, Mühlenbeck appeared in a video taken by his hostages, and spoke about his possible death at the hands of his captors. “It could happen today. Maybe tomorrow, also possibly in three days.” he said. He also urged officials not to try freeing him by force. “I want to live and see my family again,” he said. After his release, Mühlenbeck – who still works for the aid group and is in Asia – said he did not want to discuss his ordeal, Welthungerhilfe said, and they respected his request. “He was very strict after his release, that he would not talk about his experience. Some of the people say they want to write a book, but he decided to not talk about his time. All I can tell you is that he was freed in Afghanistan,” Pott said. It is fairly established knowledge that the German government has paid ransom money for its nationals in the past. Although Italy has formally denied paying ransoms for the release of hostages, two Italian aid workers who were held as hostages by Syria’s largest al-Qaida group – Vanessa Marzullo and Greta Ramelli – were freed in January. Security sources said the women were released after the payment of a multimillion-dollar ransom to Jabhat al-Nusra, or the al-Nusra Front, which has direct ties to al-Qaida’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Related: Giovanni Lo Porto's friends break cover two years after his kidnap in Pakistan Friends of Lo Porto told the Guardian in December 2013 that they had been growing increasingly concerned because, at the time, he had not been in touch for nearly two years. They hoped against hope that the authorities in Italy would be able to negotiate his release. After graduating from the peace and conflict studies course at London Met in 2010, Lo Porto joined short-term projects in the Central African Republic and Haiti before travelling to Pakistan to help rebuild an area hit by severe flooding. According to friends, he fell in love with the region and worked to improve water supplies and sanitation in the Punjab, returning again at the beginning of 2012. Professor Mike Newman, who taught Lo Porto at London Met, said in December 2013 that he had heard from Lo Porto when he had got in touch shortly after arriving in Pakistan. “He told me: ‘I’m happy to be back in Asia and Pakistan, I do love the people, the culture and the food of this part of the world,’” Newman recalled at the time. “Pakistan was his real love and he felt he had done a good job there establishing positive relations with the local population and staff. He was so delighted to be back.” Lo Porto, Newman said, was a “warm, friendly, open-minded person” who was very popular with staff and students. “He enriched the discussions for all of us by drawing on his varied experience of working in complex situations in many parts of the world. His approach was always questioning and he certainly had no time for simplistic western policy agendas,” he added. Sarah Neal, a fellow student and close friend of Lo Porto, told the Guardian in 2013 that Lo Porto was a supportive friend who went out of his way to help others. “He came to London Met on the day we had to hand in our dissertations purely to help others – he’d already submitted his thesis the day before. So that’s what he did: he edited, proofread, and helped bind them until submission closed. “He is incredibly loyal to his friends and shows that in many small and big ways. You can always rely on him,” Neal said in 2013. Mira Esposito, an architect who worked with Lo Porto while he was in London, said: “In 2010 Giovanni went to Pakistan to help rebuild flooded areas. He sent news from the devastated country that he was helping to rebuild, and then we heard that he had been kidnaped – the rest you know. “I miss him and his need to understand human nature and I miss his blue eyes, his curiosity and his need to help regardless of risks. I miss his calm voice full of question marks. “I do not know what happened and why he was killed. I would like to know more. We miss the people we know, but many more are killed for no reason from a distance by just pushing a button.” Additional reporting by Alessandra Bonomolo in Sicily |