Russian ambassador found dead

Sudan's foreign ministry says Russia's ambassador to the African country has been found dead in his residence in Khartoum.

In a statement carried by the state-run SUNA news agency on Wednesday, the ministry said Ambassador Mirgayas Shirinsky died Wednesday and offered its condolences to the government and people of Russia.

The ministry praised Shirinsky's diplomatic efforts while in office but offered no details on the circumstances surrounding his death, but there were reports that he was found in his swimming pool.

Shirinsky, who was in his 60s, had been in the Russian diplomatic service since 1977 and had previously served in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Rwanda.

He was appointed ambassador to Sudan in 2013.

Shirinsky becomes the latest in a string of Russian officials to die in the past eight months.  Among them, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations died of an apparent heart attack in New York, an ambassador to Turkey was killed in an art gallery, and another died in India after what was described as a brief illness.