State Department: U.S.
envoy found dead in Ethiopia
Brian Adkins, a newly assigned American diplomat in Ethiopia, was
found dead last weekend at his home in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa, an embassy spokesman and a senior State Department official
said Thursday.
U.S. Embassy press officer Michael McClellan identified Adkins and
said he was from Columbus, Ohio. He was 25 at the time of his death.
"He was found dead over the weekend and a criminal investigation is
under way," McClellan said. "The Ethiopian Federal Police are
investigating it."
Adkins, who would have turned 26 on Monday, received his
undergraduate and graduate degrees from George Washington
University, according to the school's newspaper, the GW Hatchet.
According to the paper, Adkins joined the State Department after
receiving his master's degree in 2007.
A State Department official, who declined to be named because of the
ongoing investigation, said it was the diplomat's first tour of duty
as a foreign service officer. There were no apparent threats against
him, and investigators are trying to determine if he was the victim
of a random crime.
The GW Hatchet reported that Adkins moved to Ethiopia as part of a
Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, after studying the
local language and culture for nearly a year.
A GWU student and friend of Adkins described him as "selfless,
hardworking, confident, funny, charming, articulate, a scholar and a
gentleman," according to the newspaper.
"The world has lost someone who had so much to offer. I miss him
tremendously," senior Michael Geremia told The Hatchet. "When I
received word of his death on Monday, which would have been his 26th
birthday, a piece of me died in Ethiopia."
As a student, Adkins was active in the Knights of Columbus and the
Newman Center, which are organizations run by the Catholic church,
the paper reported
Source: CNN
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