The Foreign Service Journal, March 2008

M A R C H 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 73 I N M EMORY On New Year’s Day, USAID FSO John Granville , 33, a democracy and governance officer, and his driver, Foreign Service National Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama , 39, were shot to death in Khartoum. The attack occurred as their car headed toward a western suburb of Sudan’s capital. It was the first assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Sudan since 1973. Granville, who joined the Foreign Service in 2004, had been working to implement the 2005 peace agree- ment between Sudan’s north and south that ended more than two decades of civil war that raged sepa- rate from the conflict in Darfur. He had been working from Kenya and southern Sudan until his move to Khartoum in September. On Jan. 9, more than 700 friends and family members assembled in Granville’s hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., for a funeral service with military honors. USAID Admini- strator Henrietta Fore, who presented his mother with the American flag that draped her son’s casket, said: “John Granville represented the best of the spirit of America: a love of country, a passion for adventure, intelligence, compassion, and an abiding desire to make this a better world for the less fortunate. At the highest levels of the U.S. government, we recognize his service and the sacrifices he made for his country.” Granville became interested in learning about the world and working abroad as a teenager. He studied Japanese in high school and participated in school trips to France and Spain. A graduate of Fordham University, he joined the Peace Corps in 1997 and spent two years in Cameroon, where he lived in a rural village and helped build its first school. As a Fulbright Scholar, he also completed research on HIV/AIDS in the country. He earned a master’s degree in international develop- ment and social change from Clark University in Worcester, Mass., in 2003. Delivering one of the eulogies was Andre Guy Soh, whom Granville had taken into his home as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon. “He was a cultural sponge. Everywhere he went, he became part of that community,” recalled Soh. Granville mentored Soh in English and com- puter skills, and now he was heading to Sudan to take a program manage- ment job with Mercy Corps that Granville had helped him land. “I think this is the best way for me to continue his work,” Soh added. The USAID memorial tribute for Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama recalls his “exemplary service to our Sudan mission [that was] crucial and appreciated.” Mr. Rahama was born in Juba, Sudan. He attended Juba Primary and Intermediate School and graduated from Khartoum Trade School. He began his USAID career with the Darfur Disaster Assistance Response Team when it started in 2004. He was officially hired as a dri- ver in November 2005. He is survived by his wife, Fatima Mohamed Ali Osman, and year-old son, Mugtaba. Mr. Rahama also provided support to his father. “Foreign Service Nationals are the backbone of our development efforts worldwide,” the USAID tribute states. “As we mourn this loss, let us rededicate our- selves to our mission so that our colleague’s lost life shall not be in vain.” Two USAID Employees Killed in Sudan “As we mourn this loss, let us rededicate ourselves to our mission so that our colleague’s lost life shall not be in vain.”