US diplomat wounded in Sudan shooting

A US diplomat was shot and wounded while in a car in Khartoum, Sudan, today in an attack that also killed the official’s Sudanese driver, the US Embassy said.

The shooting came a day after a joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping duties in Sudan’s violence-torn Darfur region – but it was unclear if the attack was targeted, or a random crime.

“Early this morning … an American officer with the US Agency for International Development was shot and wounded,” said Walter Braunohler, the public affairs officer at the US Embassy in Khartoum. “A locally-employed Sudanese national was killed in the same incident.”

Braunohler said the American, whose name was not released by the embassy, was undergoing medical treatment, but could not comment on the extent of the injuries.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry identified the wounded American as a humanitarian aid official and said he was shot five times in the hand, shoulder and stomach. The diplomat underwent surgery and was in stable condition, according to the ministry’s statement.

The ministry identified the Sudanese driver who was killed as 40-year-old Abdel Rahman Abbas and said the attack occurred around 4am local time (0100 Irish time) today as the car was heading to a western suburb of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

Both US and Sudanese officials said they were investigating the incident but could not yet provide details on the circumstances surrounding the attack, which coincided with the end of New Year’s eve celebrations.

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 new hybrid peacekeeping force took over in Darfur – 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-US 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.