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Brussels: Waris Dirie, a former model turned women's rights campaigner, has gone missing in Brussels, her manager said Friday.
She has not been seen since the early hours of Wednesday morning when police saw her getting into a taxi after a mixup over a hotel room, Walter Lutschinger said in a telephone interview.
"We are really very scared," he said.
Somali-born Dirie gained international fame as a model posing in Chanel ads and acting in a James Bond film before launching her campaign against female genital mutilation 1996.
Dirie, who now lives in Vienna, was due to speak to two conferences on women's rights organized by the European Union in Brussels this week, including one Thursday attended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
She recounted her own experiences of suffering genital mutilation as a child in the book "Desert Flower" that became an international best-seller.
News of Dirie's disappearance comes a week after French police said they had found the body of another former model of African origin who had campaigned against female genital mutilation. Guinean-born Katoucha Niane was discovered floating in the River Seine in Paris.
The French police said an autopsy showed no signs of foul play, pointing to the possibility that she may have fallen accidentally into the river.
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