In a message marking the anniversary, President Sergio Mattarella lamented the fact that the truth about the murders has never come to light and the killers have not been brought to justice.

“The killers and those who ordered the murder s are still nameless and faceless after investigations and moves to knock the probes off track, retractions and trials that ended in nothing,” the president said.

“It is a wound for the whole of society. The institutions know that we can never give up on the search for the truth.”

Alpi, 32, and Hrovatin, 44, were ambushed and shot in their jeep in Mogadishu by a seven-man commando on March 20, 1994.

Initially, it was thought that the reporters were murdered in revenge for clashes which had broken out between the militias of Somalia’s warlords and Italian peacekeepers.

But a 1999 book by Alpi’s parents called The Execution alleged that they were killed to stop them revealing what they knew about an international arms and toxic-waste ring implicating high-level political, military and economic figures in both countries.

A Somali man spent over 16 years behind bars for the killings but was subsequently cleared.

Hashi Omar Hassan is no longer alive after being killed in a bomb attack in 2022.

In his message for the anniversary, Mattarella said that “the value of the autonomy of the free press is under attack in many parts of the world”.

“Many journalists pay with their lives for their independence from the powers that be, their search for truth,” the head of State added.

“The memory of Alpi and Hrovatin also calls out for a commitment to remove obstacles to freedom of information, wherever they may be.”

Giorgia Meloni also paid tribute to the memory of Alpi and Hrovatin in the Lower House as she reported to parliament ahead of this week’s European summit.

“It has been 30 years since the ambush that cut short their lives,” Meloni said.

“Ilaria Alpi is one of the women I mentioned in my inaugural speech to the Chambers [of parliament].

“Her courage is the courage of Italian women, and we must all be grateful to her, especially women.”

ANSA