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28 March 2024

US official wounded, Sudanese man shot dead in Khartoum

Published
By Agencies

 

A US official was critically wounded in a shooting attack on a vehicle in Khartoum on Tuesday and his Sudanese driver was killed, a Western diplomatic source said.

"What we have heard is that a driver and a US official, sometime a little after midnight, were heading home. The driver was shot and died on the spot and the US official was shot and critically injured," the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Sudanese officials said they are investigating the shooting. An Arab television station said the attack had targeted a US diplomatic car, but US officials would not immediately confirm that.

The Sudanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unclear if the car was a US or United Nations vehicle. But Al-Arabiya television said the attack had occurred on a US vehicle, and said a Sudanese driver was killed and an American wounded in the attack.


The US Embassy in Khartoum had no immediate comment on the incident.
 
It was unclear if the attack was targeted, or a random crime. Crime is fairly high in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, although much lower than in other east African cities like Nairobi, Kenya.

The shooting came a day after a joint African-United Nations force took over peacekeeping duties in Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region - a long-awaited change that is intended to be the strongest effort yet to solve the world's worst humanitarian crisis but which already is struggling.


Because of the Darfur crisis, anti-Western and anti-U.S. sentiment - especially by Sudan's government - runs high in parts of Sudan.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has long resisted Western demands that he accept a UN force, vowing that he would lead a "jihad" against any UN peacekeeper who sets foot in Darfur. But in June he accepted a compromise deal for deployment of a "hybrid mission" of mainly African troops. (Reuters and AP)