KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Nigerian diplomat was found dead in his home in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Thursday, two security sources said, in an apparent murder that police said did not appear to be politically motivated.

Police spokesman Omar al-Mokhtar said the unidentified diplomat, who had been working in the immigration section of the Nigerian Embassy, was stabbed to death and police had ruled out the possibility it was a terrorist attack.

Mokhtar said police had arrested several suspects, but provided no further details.

Officials from the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum were not available to comment.

Dubai-based al-Arabiya television had earlier described the diplomat’s death as an “assassination”.

Though intermittent violence is common in Sudan’s ethnically torn southern and western regions, violence in the capital is rare.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has recently shaken up the security establishment, replacing the heads of the army and intelligence service in February.