SUDAN:Gunmen killed a US government aid agency official and his driver in Khartoum yesterday, US and Sudanese officials said.
The unknown assailants opened fire as the official from the US Agency for International Development (USAid) was heading home in an embassy vehicle shortly after midnight on New Year's Day, diplomatic sources said. The driver was killed instantly and the official was taken to hospital where he died from his wounds.
Walter Braunohler, public diplomacy officer at the US embassy, said it was too early to speculate about motives and declined to identify the official. Sudan state news agency Suna identified him as John Granville (33) and said he had died from multiple gunshot wounds. Sudan condemned the attack and said the perpetrators would be pursued.
Washington has long had tense relations with Khartoum due to the conflict in Darfur, which US president George Bush has labelled genocide. The Sudanese government rejects that charge.
The shooting came a day after Mr Bush signed a law to make it easier for states, local governments, mutual funds and pension funds to cut investment in companies doing business in Sudan, because of the Darfur conflict.
The US government warned its citizens in Sudan in August it had information "an extremist group" might target US government interests or facilities.
Sudan foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig called it an isolated incident and said the investigation was being co-ordinated with the US side. No arrests have been made. He did not say whether the attack was criminal or political, but he believed the US official was fired on from another vehicle.
Some 20 US states have initiated divestment efforts due to the ethnic and political conflict in Darfur, which international experts say has taken 200,000 lives and displaced 2.5 million since rebels took up arms against the government in 2003. Khartoum says 9,000 have died.
On Monday, a UN/African Union (AU) force took charge of peacekeeping in Darfur, replacing a struggling AU mission. The plan entails 20,000 soldiers and 6,000 police, but current numbers are only about one-third of those levels. -