Rwanda Opposition Party Cries Foul as Second Member Goes Missing

(Bloomberg) -- Rwandan opposition party, the United Democratic Forces, says one of its members has been missing since Monday.

Eugene Ndereyimana can’t be traced since he left his home for a political meeting in Eastern Rwanda on Monday, party Chairwoman Victoire Ingabire said by phone on Tuesday.

“We suspect Eugene to be held by the authorities,” she said. “Someone can’t just disappear minutes after he’s just spoken to his colleagues. He’d just informed them he’d be with them in less than 10 minutes.”

The Rwanda Investigation Bureau is yet to be informed of the matter as the law requires that such cases be reported after 48 hours, she said. The bureau’s spokesman, Modeste Mbabazi, said he hadn’t receive information on the case.

Ndereyimana is the second UDF party member to disapper this year. In March, party spokesman Anselme Mutuyimana’s body was discovered in the northwest of the country where he’d traveled to visit his parents, Ingabire said at the time.

Ingabire, a one-time presidential candidate, was jailed for 15 years in 2013 for conspiring against the government, before being pardoned last year. Human-rights groups have repeatedly accused Rwanda of cracking down on political opponents and the media under President Paul Kagame’s rule.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis at kbhuckory1@bloomberg.net;Saul Butera in Kigali at sbutera2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura, Hilton Shone

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