BBC News Gahuza reports that 26-year-old poet, Innocent Bahati, has been missing since the evening of February 7, 2021.

According to Bahati’s roommate, poet Junior Rumaga, Bahati attended dinner with an associate at a hotel in Nyanza District and did not return home to Kigali after the meeting. Rumaga shares that Nyanza District is located at the center of the poetry tradition in Rwanda, so it was not unusual for Bahati to travel there for projects.

During the evening of February 7, Bahati’s phone turned off and his roommate was unable to reach him for two days. On February 9, Junior Rumaga traveled to the hotel in Nyanza District and alerted the Rwanda Bureau of Investigation (RIB) of Bahati’s disappearance.

A spokesperson for the RIB, Murangira Thierry, shared with BBC that “The investigation is ongoing. As of now, we cannot reveal any information.”

Innocent Bahati is a nationally recognized poet and technology instructor at Green Hills Academy in Kigali, Rwanda. He writes oral poetry about political issues such as the refugee crisis, poverty, and the church.

Click here to read the full article written in Kinyarwanda. Thanks to Alain Jules Hirwa, founder and editor of Tea House Magazine for translating the article.

Listen to Bahati’s most recent poem published on his YouTube channel below: