Alarm grows as Senegal's 'best student' goes missing in Paris

French authorities have launched a missing persons probe after a prize-winning Senegalese student and novelist, Diary Sow, went missing in Paris over a week ago. Her disappearance has caused alarm in both countries. 

The 20-year-old Paris-based student has not been seen since 4 January. 

Sow won an award for being Senegal's best student in 2018 and 2019 and also published a novel in France last year, entitled The Face of an Angel.

After the Christmas holidays, she failed to show up at the prestigious Louis-le-Grand high school in Paris where she has been studying for the past two years.

"She is a very punctual student, very serious. We raised the alarm quickly. No one saw her and we did not find her in her apartment," said Henry Sarr, member of a Senegalese students group that issued appeals on social media to locate her.

The Senegalese consul in Paris reported her missing on 7 January and the consulate has put her picture and details on its website.

According to a source close to the case, investigators were keeping all hypotheses open, including the possibility that she ran away.

French prosecutors said a probe had been opened into her disappearance and handed to the missing persons unit.

"Neither her parents, her friends, her tutor nor the ambassador have any news," said a member of the Senegalese community in Paris, Daouda Mbaye, who handed out flyers in Paris to draw attention to the case.