NAIROBI, Kenya — The U.S. State Department closed its embassies in four sub-Saharan African nations as part of a heightened security alert, days before the 15th anniversary of al-Qaeda’s bombings of American diplomatic missions in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people, mostly Kenyans.
Those two embassies targeted in the Aug. 7, 1998, attacks were rebuilt as more heavily fortified structures away from populated areas where they would be less vulnerable to attack. Those embassies remain open, but the diplomatic missions in Rwanda and Burundi, small countries which border Tanzania to the west, and the island nations of Madagascar and Mauritius were ordered closed.
U.S. officials gave no hint as to why the four U.S. embassies were closed. But one Africa expert noted that Burundi and Rwanda each have an older U.S. Embassy building that is less secure than newer embassies.
