One member of Rwanda’s National Para-Taekwondo team disappeared from the 2017 Para-Taekwondo championship village and did not return home following the climax of the World Championship last Friday.
Eliezer Tuyishime was in the Para Taekwondo national team for a year but vanished on the morning of the day when the team was preparing to return home, according to Placide Bagabo the secretary general of the National Taekwondo Federation.
He disappeared without his service passport as well as a personal mobile phone. “We realized he was missing in the morning, so we reported the matter to Home Office in London and they went ahead to check his last phone call he received or contacted.”
He added that it was realised the athlete, from Karongi, communicated with his Guinean friend as well as a certain British citizen. We provided the Home office with the required information so that the search can start and they promised to find him, the official said.
“We never suspected he would to disappear,” he added.
Tuyishime’s disappearance prompted authorities at Kigali International Airport, to make further inquiries about the missing athlete which led the team to spend more hours at the airport terminal on arrival.
It is believed that he is staying below the radar in the UK. The federation is confident he will be caught and deported back since he doesn’t have any documents on him.
It is not the first time a Rwandan athlete has gone missing during international sports competitions.
In 2012, two Rwandan athletes, James Rutikanga and Eric Ngirinshuti, joined multiple Olympians, who went missing from the Olympic Village at the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Ngirinshuti later returned home.
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