Gunmen killed a United States government aid agency official and his driver in Khartoum on Tuesday, 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, told Reuters: ”Unfortunately, he has just died.”
Braunohler said it was too early to speculate about motives and declined to identify the slain US official beyond saying that he worked for USAid.
Sudan’s state news agency Suna identified the official as 33-year-old John Granville 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 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, particularly its oil sector, because of the Darfur conflict.
The US government warned its citizens in Sudan in August that it had information ”an extremist group” might target US government interests or facilities.
Al Arabiya television said the attack took place in a main street in the capital, Khartoum.
Sudan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ali al-Sadig called it an isolated incident and said the investigation was being coordinated with the US side. No arrests have been made.
He did not say whether the attack was criminal or political, but he said investigators were considering all options and that he believed the US official was fired on from another vehicle. — Reuters