It was one of the most horrific events in U.S. diplomatic history. On August 7, 1998, between 10:30 am and 10:40 am local time, suicide bombers parked trucks loaded with explosives outside the embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi and almost simultaneously detonated them. In Nairobi, approximately 212 people were killed, and an estimated 4,000 wounded; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85. Prudence Bushnell, a career Foreign Service Officer, was Ambassador to Kenya at the time and relates to Stu Kennedy of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training the harrowing events of those days in her oral history.
Read her complete oral history here. To see a video interview with Ambassador Bushnell, go to our sister site, usdiplomacy.org. To listen to a podcast, go here. For another perspective, you can read the Accountability Review Board on U.S. Embassy Nairobi bombing. Read about other Foreign Service officers who died in the line of duty.
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