Diplomat remembered as devoted American
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - January 1, 2008 Africa had been "very special to John" since his time as a
Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, his family said in a statement
Tuesday, after Granville, 33, and his driver were shot to death in
the Sudanese capital.
Granville, who was from Buffalo, was working for the U.S. Agency
for International Development as part of a team trying to implement
a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war between
north and south Sudan.
"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
U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, who spoke with Granville's mother, Jane
Granville, after her son's death.
Officials were working to return Granville's body to the United
States, possibly by Wednesday or Thursday, the Buffalo-area
congressman said.
Granville, who last called his mother on New Year's Eve,
graduated from Fordham University and got a master's degree in
international development from Clark University, his family said.
While in the Peace Corps, he helped a Cameroon village build its
first school.
"John's life was a celebration of love, hope and peace," the
family's statement said. "He will be missed by many people
throughout the world whose lives were touched and made better
because of his care."
Granville had surgery after being struck several times in the
attack, which instantly killed his Sudanese driver, identified by
the Sudanese Interior Ministry as 40-year-old Abdel Rahman Abbas.
He was being driven home at around 4 a.m. when another vehicle
intercepted his car, the Sudanese Interior Ministry said. Gunmen in
the car opened fire on Granville's vehicle and fled the scene, the
ministry said in a statement.
Higgins said the pair had been in a car with diplomatic plates,
and investigators are trying to determine a motive.
"They don't know if it was random or if it was targeted for
USAID or targeted for John," Higgins said.
Higgins, a member of a House subcommittee for international
relations in emerging threats, has been to Sudan twice and praised
the work of agencies like USAID "for doing the work that
government over there won't do and can't do."
"He was doing God's work," Higgins said.
Granville's work included bringing radios to residents of south
Sudan to maximize USAID's broadcasting initiatives in the region,
according to the organization's Web site, which posted pictures
Granville surrounded by some of those who received radios.
The shooting came a day after a joint African Union-United
Nations force took over peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region.
Though Darfur, far to the west, is engulfed in violence, the
Sudanese capital of Khartoum and its surroundings rarely see
political violence or attacks by Islamic militants.
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On the Net:
USAID: http://www.usaid.gov
