A series of disappearances in Rwanda in 2026 has intensified concerns over the fate of people who challenge the government or publicly criticise its policies.
Families and political organisations say those reported missing include land-rights activists, opposition party members and residents who have spoken out against forced evictions in Kigali.
In several cases, relatives and associates suspect the involvement of security forces. The authorities have yet to provide public explanations for the whereabouts of the missing.
The allegations come amid sustained international scrutiny of Rwandaโs human-rights record. Government critics accuse the authorities of using surveillance, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances to silence dissent.
Jean de Dieu Ihorahabona, an activist who helped residents challenge their displacement from Kigaliโs Kangondo and Kibiraro neighbourhoods, disappeared in February while travelling to visit his child at school.
According to witnesses cited by his family, two uniformed police officers stopped the vehicle in which Ihorahabona was travelling on Sunday, 1 February. The officers allegedly forced him out, placed him in a civilian vehicle and drove away.
His elder brother, Kalisa, told the BBC that he had arranged to meet Ihorahabona after his visit to his daughterโs school in Rulindo District, north of Kigali. When Ihorahabona failed to arrive and could no longer be reached by phone, Kalisa became alarmed.
โGiven the situation in the past and the fact that he was already being closely monitored by intelligence agents, I immediately became worried,โ he said. โNormally, his phones are never switched offโฆ So I immediately thought that they had kidnapped my brother.โ
Ihorahabona and other residents had filed a legal case against the state over their displacement. The residents maintain that the demolitions and relocations were unlawful and that compensation offered by the authorities was inadequate.
According to Kalisa, Ihorahabona was due to appear before the Office of the Ombudsman to provide information about resettlement plots that had allegedly been seized by officials.
For roughly two years before his disappearance, Ihorahabona had reportedly told relatives and colleagues that he was being followed and threatened by people pressuring him to withdraw the case.
โIhorahabona is someone who, when he is convinced that he has discovered an injustice, cannot accept being prevented from denouncing it, no matter what is done to silence him,โ Kalisa told the BBC.
The dispute over Kangondo and Kibiraro has continued since 2017.
Residents say authorities began demolishing homes in 2020 before forcibly relocating people in 2022. The East African Report contacted the Rwanda National Police and the Rwanda Investigation Bureau for comment on Ihorahabonaโs disappearance. Neither institution had responded by the time of publication.
PS Imberakuri member Goes Missing After Criticising Kigali Home Demolitions
Twagiramariya Josephine, a member of the opposition PS Imberakuri party and a married mother of two, disappeared on 26 June while travelling to work in Kigali. She did not return home.
A source close to her family, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Twagiramariya was allegedly abducted by security personnel travelling in a Toyota Vigo while she was on her way home.
Umwali Annalithe, a pseudonym used for security reasons, said she had previously worked with Twagiramariya in Kigali. According to Annalithe, her disappearance may be linked to interviews she had recently given to the media, in which she criticised the demolition of homes in Kigali.
Twagiramariya had reportedly described the demolitions as a source of severe hardship and injustice for affected residents. She and other residents whose homes had been demolished also rejected an offer of 90,000 Rwandan francs in rental assistance, arguing that the amount did not adequately reflect the value of the homes they had lost.
โShe left for work and did not return home,โ Bernard Ntaganda, founding president of PS Imberakuri, toldReport after the party learned of her disappearance. โWe are still trying to contact the security authorities so that they can tell us where she is, because a person cannot simply disappear like a needle.โ
โWe cannot remain silent or accept that such abuses continue in our country, where people are subjected to persecution or forcibly disappear simply because of their political Opinions.โ he said.
The East African Reportโs investigation found that Twagiramariya had links to individuals associated with Rwandaโs former regime. According to the investigation, she was reportedly connected to Nsabimana Castar, who served as a chief of staff in the former Ex-FAR armed forces under the government of Juvรฉnal Habyarimana.
Twagiramariya was also reportedly the daughter of Ufitimana Ignace, a former employee of MINITRAP, the Ministry of Public Works and Infrastructure. Ufitimana disappeared in 1999 and was later reported to have died under circumstances that remain unclear.
The whereabouts of Twagiramariya Josephine, a member of the PS Imberakuri party, have remained unknown since her disappearance.
A pattern stretching back years
The recent disappearances have revived questions about the fate of other Rwandans who vanished after becoming involved in opposition politics, journalism or public criticism of the government.
Poetย Innocentย Bahati
๐s been missing for nearly five years. He was widely known in Rwanda for poems about everyday life and love, including Imana ya Sembwa, Urwandiko rwa Bene Gakara and Mfungurira, his last published poem, which became popular on YouTube.
Bahati was last seen in Nyanza on the evening of Sunday, 7 February 2021. According to Junior Rumaga, a fellow poet and Bahatiโs former roommate in Kigali, the pair had been using a house in Nyanza as a meeting place for poets and as a base for a literary project.
Rumaga said Bahati had been expected to remain there only briefly because he also worked as a computer teacher at Green Hills Academy.
That evening, Bahati had dinner with several people. After they left, his phone stopped working. When Bahati failed to return, Rumaga initially assumed he had spent the night elsewhere. The following day, however, his phone remained switched off.
โWhen a young man goes missing for more than 24 hours and his phone cannot be reached, it becomes worrying.โ Rumaga said.
After two days without news, Rumaga travelled to Nyanza and questioned people at the hotel and others who had last seen Bahati. They reportedly said they had parted from him after he told them he was going home. No one has since confirmed where Bahati went.
Some people online have linked his disappearance to the political messages they believe were contained in his poetry, particularly Mfungurira. Those claims remain unverified.
Journalist Cassien Ntamuhanga
The whereabouts of journalist Cassien Ntamuhanga have also remained unknown since his arrest in Mozambique in 2021.
Ntamuhanga was arrested on Sunday, 23 May 2021, on Inhaca Island, east of Maputo, where he was living. Police confirmed the arrest to his lawyer.
In 2017, he had escaped from a Rwandan prison, where he was serving a 25-year sentence on terrorism-related charges. The month after his disappearance from Mozambique, he was sentenced in absentia to another 25 years on similar charges.
His lawyer has said he does not know where Ntamuhanga is. Reports have alleged that Mozambican police handed him to the Rwandan Embassy in Maputo, which then secretly transferred him to Kigali. Those reports have not been independently confirmed.
Two Rwandans living in Maputo told the BBC that they had learned police officers transferred Ntamuhanga to the embassy for onward transmission to Rwanda.
Clรฉophas Habiyaremye, a representative of Rwandan refugees in Mozambique, said refugees still had no reliable information about Ntamuhangaโs fate. He raised the possibility that Ntamuhanga had been killed or tortured after being taken to Kigali.
Eugene Ndereyimana
Eugene Ndereyimana disappeared in 2019, aged 29, while attending a meeting of members of the opposition FDU-Inkingi party in Nyagatare District.
He has never been found.
His wife, Joselyne Mwiseneza, said the uncertainty had devastated the family.
โIt is very difficult for our family to lose someone who was our support without knowing whether he is still alive or dead,โ she told the BBC.
โIt is a very difficult struggle. The children are still young and have not been able to accept what happened. They continue to wait for him and always ask me: โWhere is Dad?โโ
Other FDU-Inkingi members and supporters reported missing over the years include Illuminรฉe Iragena, who disappeared in 2016; Boniface Twagirimana, who disappeared in 2018; and Venant Abayisenga, who disappeared in 2020.
Others reported missing include Anne Marie Murekatete, Virginie Uwamahoro and Halerimana Sleman, who disappeared in 2014.
Nearly 30 people reported missing
During the United Nations Universal Periodic Review in 2025, it was reported that approximately 30 people had gone missing in Rwanda between 2025 and 2026.
The Rwandan government has rejected allegations that it is responsible for abductions and disappearances.
Officials have cited several possible explanations, including unregistered movement from rural areas to cities, illegal border crossings, extended stays abroad, debt, marital disputes and people leaving the country to join rebel groups in neighbouring states.
For the families of those who have disappeared, the central question remains unanswered: where are their relatives, and who will be held responsible if they have been harmed?
Until the authorities provide credible information and conduct transparent investigations, each new disappearance adds to a growing pattern of fear and impunity.
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