( CNN ) Giovanni Lo Porto put himself in harm 's way to help , heading to Pakistan to work on a much needed reconstruction project following deadly flooding there . His work and his life , as he knew it then , came to a halt on January 19 , 2012 . That 's when , according to Italy 's state-run ANSA news agency , four armed men burst into the building where Lo Porto lived and abducted him along with colleague Bernd Muehlenbeck . Two years later , Lo Porto was dead -- killed accidentally by a U.S. drone strike , according to American authorities . The native of the Sicilian city of Palermo died along with a fellow al Qaeda hostage , American Warren Weinstein . That same counterterrorism operation in a border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan killed at least one al Qaeda leader , Ahmed Farouq , who was also a U.S. citizen . His family members , including his four brothers , called him Giancarlo . Lo Porto grew up in Sicily and then studied at London Metropolitan University , getting his undergraduate degree there in Peace and Conflict Studies in 2010 , according to the school . A professor there remembers him as `` passionate , friendly ( and ) open-minded , '' according to an ANSA report . And the university , in a statement , described him as `` a popular student who was committed to helping others . '' `` We are tremendously proud of him and the humanitarian work he did , '' the school said . At the time he was taken captive , Lo Porto worked with the German aid organization Welthungerlife , a 53-year-old group dedicated to fighting hunger and poverty worldwide . Such work means going to places where the need is most -- places like Multan in Pakistan . That community was one of many in Pakistan devastated by major flooding in 2010 , which covered about one-fifth of the country and left more than 1,500 people dead . These conditions are all too common in the South Asian nation , as evidenced by flooding one year later that forced upwards of 660,000 into refugee camps and killed more than 430 people , about a quarter of whom were children . `` He told me , ' I 'm pleased to have returned to Asia and Pakistan , I love the people , culture and food in this part of the world , ' `` said the London Metropolitan University professor . Specifically , Lo Porto was a project manager with Welthungerlife 's clean water and sanitation program , working with 8 to 10 fellow international staffers and 100 to 200 locals starting in October 2011 , according to Simone Pott , a spokeswoman for the aid group . Pott described Lo Porto as a lively , very positive man who made friends all over the world . Some of those friends in Italy , England and beyond pressed for Lo Porto 's release after he was taken captive , urging Italy 's government and newspaper editors to get his story out , ANSA reported . The same story said that al Qaeda ( after first claiming he was being held ) denied abducting Lo Porto , as did the Pakistani Taliban . Muehlenbeck , a German national , was freed last October , at which time he said that he and his colleague had been separated , according to ANSA . But Lo Porto never got the chance to savor freedom again , like his German counterpart . Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said his country 's government `` carried out every effort possible to trace and try to return Giovanni to his loved ones . '' `` Unfortunately , the conclusion is now different ( than we wanted ) because of the tragic and fatal mistake of our American allies , which has been recognized by President Obama , '' Gentiloni said . `` The responsibility of his death and ( that ) of Warren Weinstein ... is that of the terrorists . '' On Thursday , after the U.S. government reported Lo Porto 's death , Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi expressed his `` deepest sorrow for the death of an Italian who dedicated his life to the service of others . '' Lo Porto 's death left those at his former charity Welthungerlife speechless and confused , Pott said . And then there are his family members like his mother , who ANSA reports became `` another person '' after her son 's kidnapping . `` Her only hope was to embrace Giovanni , '' a neighbor said . CNN 's Hadia Messia contributed to this report .
newspaper where Lo Porto works describes him as a lively , positive man with lots of humour . London university says he was a ` ` popular figure ... dedicated to helping people '' He was killed in a U.S. hunger strike in January , authorities say .