US Embassy alerts of terrorist threats, ban a café in Khartoum

October 11, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The United States Embassy in Khartoum reminded the existing travel warning for Sudan on Friday, alerting US citizens in the country to threats made by a group called “Al-Qaida in the Land of the Two Niles.” It also advised them to cease patronising a café in Khartoum.

In a warden message dated on October 2, but posted on the Embassy’s website on October 10, the Embassy reminded the killing of two staff on New Year’s Day.

An American diplomat in Sudan, John Granville, and his driver Abdel Rahman Abbas were shot before dawn by members of the Al-Qaida to death on Tuesday January 2 as they were coming home from a New Year’s Eve party in Khartoum.

Five Sudanese allegedly member of the Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Niles are on trial since last August for the murder of Granville and Abbas. This group was unknown before this attack.

In another warden message dated on October 10, the embassy forbade American staff not to patronise the ‘Ozonz’, Khartoum’s most popular café among Western expatriates.

“The U.S. Embassy, in a reassessment of its personnel’s security posture, has determined that the “Ozone” restaurant, located in Khartoum 2 is particularly vulnerable from a security perspective and has, therefore, restricted U.S. Embassy employees’ patronage of this location.” The warden message said.

The US embassy urged Americans to exercise increased caution at all places frequented by Westerners and to be vigilant when travelling around Khartoum.

Sudan sheltered Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden for five years in the 1990s and the country remains on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1993.

Sudan and the United States, which has no ambassador in Khartoum, earlier this year held talks in a bid to improve their diplomatic relations.

Sudanese intelligence, however, has cooperated with the US-led “war on terror” that followed the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Sudan is hoping to be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terror, which includes Iran and North Korea, and for Washington to lift economic sanctions which predate, but are also related to, the Darfur conflict.

(ST)