“Caution and optimism”.
Or how to summarize in two words the state of mind of the Senegalese authorities about their national Diary Sow, 20, a brilliant student from the Parisian high school Louis-le-Grand who has disappeared since January 4.
“The investigation carried out by the French police is large-scale, welcomes Amadou Diallo, Consul General of Senegal in Paris, reached by telephone on Tuesday, January 12.
The criminal hypothesis now seems ruled out.
But we have to be careful.
"
“For the moment, Diary has not been found and she does not appear to have given any sign of life.
However, there are good reasons to believe that we will eventually find her safe and sound, ”explains Amadou Diallo.
The police officers of the Parisian judicial police would indeed lean for the hypothesis of a voluntary disappearance.
"It doesn't look like him at all"
According to our information, the "best student of Senegal" in 2018 and 2019 spent a few days in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) at the end of the year, as reported by La Dépêche du Midi, but would then have returned to Paris in back to school view.
Moreover, on Monday January 4, the day of the start of the school year, the passage of his badge was detected at the door of his student residence, boulevard de Port-Royal (13th arrondissement).
Diary Sow would then appear, the same day, in the field of CCTV cameras installed on the path that leads her to her high school, rue Saint-Jacques (5th arrondissement).
Except that she did not show up in her 2nd year classroom of the Physics-Chemistry preparatory class (PC *) at the engineering schools and that no one has so far been able to find precisely her trace.
One of the wanted notices posted after the disappearance of Diary Sow, who has not given any sign of life since January 4./LP/Ronan Folgoas
Asked by Le Parisien-Today in France, a member of his family confides both his concerns and his hope.
“One of our relatives who also lives in Paris spoke to him on January 3 and nothing suggested anything abnormal, underlines Makhfousse Sarr, a maternal uncle, a biologist in Dakar (Senegal).
We understood that Diary was present in Paris that day.
For the rest, the investment and commitment that we feel on the side of the French police and the Senegalese authorities give us confidence.
We feel that Diary is very much alive.
But impossible to be sure for the moment ”.
However, there remains a huge question mark.
"We know very little about the Parisian environment in which Diary has been living lately," continues this uncle.
It is therefore difficult to make assumptions.
One thing is certain, it is neither in his habits nor in his temperament to disappear voluntarily.
It is not at all like him to suddenly put aside his studies.
"
"An impressive precocity in his writing"
According to her latest confidences, the student wanted to become a researcher in the field of genetics and was preparing for the entrance examination to the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique.
A young woman of many talents, equally at ease in scientific subjects as in modern languages, Diary Sow also cultivates a passion for literature and writing.
From the age of 15, she had started writing a novel, published in early 2020 after a few years of maturation.
“Diary shows impressive precocity in his writing,” assures Abdoulaye Diallo, general administrator of L'Harmattan Senegal editions.
So much so that when we received her manuscript, we wondered if she really was the author.
The novel,
Under the face of an angel
, questions the complexity of the human being through the journey of a young girl, Allyn, who suffered abuse in her childhood that distorted her person.
Pure fiction?
"Diary Sow's book, still prominently featured in Dakar bookshops, is not autobiographical," says its editor.
She grew up in a loving and well-structured family.
"
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Diary is the second in a family of six children (three boys and three girls).
Her mother, Bineta, is a housewife.
His father was a pastry chef.
He died in April 2020 from a heart attack.
“Her father was also her friend,” says Dakar's uncle.
They were very connected.
When I saw Diary last summer in Senegal, she seemed to have found the strength to overcome this test of life.
In any case, she had finished her first year of preparatory class at Louis-le-Grand without any particular difficulty, with even a certain brilliance, from what I understood ”.
In the coming weeks, his second novel entitled “Les masques tombent…” was due to appear, conceived as a sequel to the first, still published by L'Harmattan Senegal.
The project is on hold for the moment.