US puts $10 mn bounty over USAID employees’ killers

Washington, Jan 8 (IANS) The US State Department Tuesday offered $10 million in rewards for information on two killers of two employees of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Xinhua reported.

Abdelbasit Alhaj Alhasan Haj Hamad and Mohamed Makawi Ibrahim Mohamed, along with three others, were convicted in Sudan for killing John Granville, a USAID official, and Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, a Sudanese national employed by the aid agency, in Khartoum Jan 1, 2008.

The two were gunned down while leaving a New Year’s eve celebration in their car, and five men were tried and convicted in 2009 by a Sudanese court for their involvement in the murders.

Four men, including Abdelbasit and Makawi, were sentenced to death but managed to escape from prison June 10, 2010, the State Department said.

Though one convict was recaptured and another reportedly killed in Somalia in 2011, Abdelbasit and Makawi remain at large and are believed to be in Somalia.

IANS 2013-01-08 23:02:05