Deogratias Kayumba, a commissioner and vice president to the National Human Rights Commission, has passed away yesterday in a hospital in India where he had gone for treatment.

This was confirmed by the commission’s communication officer Jean-Claude Ndatuwera.

Speaking to The New Times today, Ndatuwera said that Kayumba has for the past few days been sick, but he could not reveal the illness to which he succumbed.

Kayumba who has been working with the commission since 1999, and before then, worked as a prefect of Byumba Prefecture, now part of both the Eastern and Northern provinces.