French backpacker still traceless

It has been 11 weeks since Arthur Angé, a French backpacker, went missing somewhere in Bangladesh, and his relatives have yet to know his whereabouts. On Sunday, when contacted over email, his cousin Maeva told the Dhaka Tribune: “We came to know from a Burmese friend of Arthur that he informed the Burmese girl about his plan to cross the Bangladesh-Myanmar border illegally. “Arthur last spoke to the girl on January 27 and informed her that he would reach Chittagong on January 29 and would like to cross the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.” There has been no word from him since then, she added. He either encountered troubles or went missing somewhere between Chittagong and Dhaka, or in Chittagong along the Myanmar border, Maeva expressed suspicion. Citing their email correspondence of January 26, Maeva had earlier said: “Arthur intended to go to Thailand and then Malaysia by sea. He said he needed to be in Malaysia by the beginning of February to meet a friend.” The Dhaka Tribune repeatedly tried to contact the French Embassy in Dhaka, but the embassy has not been forthcoming with any information or confirmation about Angé’s whereabouts. The six-foot-tall man with brown eyes and chestnut-red hair began his expedition around the world from Montpellier in France three years ago. His Facebook profile cover photo has an illustration of the world map with “World Tour By Land” written bellow. He posted the picture on October 28, 2013.