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US diplomat shot and killed in Sudan

This undated photo provided by the US Agency for International Development shows John Granville, center. Granville was shot and killed early on Tuesday by gunmen in a passing car who cut him off as he was being driven home in Sudan's capital. PHOTO: AP

A US diplomat was shot and killed by gunmen in a passing car who cut him off as he was being driven home in Sudan's capital. Sudanese officials insisted it was not a terrorist attack but the US embassy said it was too soon to determine the motive.

The diplomat's Sudanese driver was also killed in the shooting early on Tuesday.

The Sudanese government often drums up anti-Western sentiment in the media. But attacks on foreigners are rare in Khartoum, where a US diplomat was last killed in 1973.

John Granville, 33, was an official for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) the agency and Granville's family said. He was working to implement a 2005 peace agreement between Sudan's north and south that ended more than two decades of civil war, USAID said.

Granville was being driven home at about 4am on Tuesday when another vehicle cut off his car and opened fire before fleeing the scene, the Sudanese Interior Ministry said.

The diplomat's driver, Abdel-Rahman Abbas, was also killed. Granville initially survived the attack with five gunshot wounds to the hand, shoulder and stomach. He died after surgery, said Walter Braunohler, the public affairs officer at the US embassy in Khartoum.

USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore said the two men killed "were serving the common interests of the US and the Sudan in bringing peace and stability to a country that has long been wracked by violence and conflict."

The agency did not release other information about the shootings or the victims.

Granville's family in Buffalo, New York. said the diplomat was committed to his work in Africa.

"John's life was a celebration of love, hope and peace," a family statement said. "He will be missed by many people throughout the world whose lives were touched and made better because of his care."

A Buffalo-area congressman, Representative Brian Higgins, said Granville knew his work put his life in danger.

"He told his mom several times ... that it's dangerous, what he's doing, but he wouldn't want to be doing anything else," said Higgins, who had spoken with Granville's mother, Jane Granville, after her son's death.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry said the incident was "isolated and has no political or ideological connotations" and pledged to bring the culprits to justice, according to the state news agency SUNA.

The Sudan Media Center, which has close links to the government, cited an unidentified government official as saying the attack was criminally motivated and that there was "no grain of suspicion of an organized terrorist action."

However Braunohler, the embassy spokesman, said it was "too early to tell" whether the attack was terror-related. Because of an ongoing investigation, he said he could not comment on any of the details provided by the Sudanese.

The shooting came a day after a joint UN-African peacekeeping force took over control in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, where more than 200,000 have died in a conflict that began in 2003. Al-Qaeda has called for a holy war in Sudan against the peacekeepers.
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