ROME -- Two Italians, a father and son, have been killed in Zimbabwe, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. It is possible that they were mistaken for poachers.  The crisis unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been activated to try and gain as much information as possible from the police in this African country.  At this moment the motive isn’t known for why the two were in Zimbabwe or how long they had been there.

 These two Paduans, according to reports by ‘Il Mattino di Padova’, were killed whilst in a hunting lodge.  The hypothesis, which is yet to be confirmed, is that security personnel on the private reserve killed them with shots from a rifle.

 The crisis unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been activated in order to try to obtain the information of what exactly happened, and to stabilise the dynamic of the events, from the Zimbabwean police force.  It is not even known how long they had been there for, nor what they were doing in that area of the African country, though it is believed they were in the Mana Pools area for an anti-poaching operation, after having been called by the same park rangers, who it is thought then mistook the pair for the poachers.

 Claudio Chiarelli, 56-years-old, and his son Massimiliano, 29-years-old and born in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, were residents of the African country, where they lived and worked.  Both were registered with the foreign office in Montecatini Val di Cecina.  They were both hunters, who for a long time had been working with local authorities against poaching, whilst mainly working as tour operators and professional safari guides.

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