Pierre Nkurunziza
President of Burundi whose 15 years in power were marked by corruption and human rights abuses
PIERRE NKURUNZIZA, the president of Burundi, who has died aged 55, was a former PE teacher turned Hutu rebel leader who came to power in Africa’s poorest country in an election in 2005 after the 12-year Hutututsi civil war that left 300,000 people dead.
The Arusha peace accords that ended the conflict ensured that the national and local government, parliament and the senate would be composed of both Hutu and Tutsis, split 60-40. There was surprise when the election (in which members of parliament were the voters and Nkurunziza the sole candidate) passed off peacefully. But that left the even more daunting challenge of rebuilding the country.
Nkurunziza implemented the Arusha Accords and presided over the demobilisation of the final Hutu rebel group from the civil war. But he did little to curb factionalism and corruption – in his first few years in power tit-for-tat violence killed scores of political activists – and as time went on his authoritarian instincts came increasingly to the fore.
Judges were kidnapped; an influential whistle-blower was assassinated on the streets of the country’s capital Bujumbura; homosexuality was outlawed and a researcher for Human Rights Watch was ejected from the country for chronicling numerous human rights abuses.
Nkurunziza won a second term in 2010, when the opposition boycotted the vote, accusing the government of intimidation, but discontent continued to grow. Even outdoor jogging was banned, supposedly because it might lead to demonstrations.
When in 2015 Nkurunziza announced his intention to stand for a third term, ostensibly contrary to the Arusha Accords, there were protests met with extreme violence by the youth wing of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, known as the Imbonerakure, and the security forces, and an unsuccessful coup attempt.
Nkurunziza maintained that his first term did not count as he had been elected by parliament, not the people – a contention that was supported by Burundi’s constitutional court, although one of the judges fled the country, claiming its members had received death threats. In June 2015 Nkurunziza won a third term with 70 per cent of the vote.
Security forces launched a crackdown that killed hundreds and caused more than 400,000 to flee Burundi. In 2017 a UN inquiry documented killings, torture and rape by security officers, and urged the International Criminal Court to open an investigation. In response Nkurunziza withdrew Burundi’s membership of the court and shut the local UN human rights office. Donors, including the EU, decided to withhold financial support.
A self-described born-again Christian, Nkurunziza went in for public displays of faith, travelling with his own choir, “Komeza gusenga”, which means “pray non-stop” in the local Kirundi language.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit Africa the Burundian government insisted that its country had been spared because of its faith in God and expelled the WHO’S top official in the country as well as his coronavirus team.
The official reason given for Nkurunziza’s death was a heart attack, but opposition sources claimed that he had been undergoing treatment for Covid-19, his wife Denise having reportedly been admitted to a private hospital in the Kenyan capital Nairobi last month after developing symptoms of the virus.
One of six children, Pierre Nkurunziza was born on December 18 1964 in Bujumbura. His father, a politician from the Hutu ethnic group, was killed in genocidal violence in 1972. His mother was from the Tutsi ethnic group.
After taking a degree in physical education at the University of Burundi, Nkurunziza taught at a school in Muramvya before becoming an assistant lecturer at his old university in 1992.
Following the outbreak of the Burundian civil war in 1993 he joined the Hutu rebel group National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD – FDD), of which he became president, pressing for a political solution to the conflict.
Nkurunziza built dozens of football stadiums and often played for his own team, Haleluya FC, in games across the country.
In February 2018, however, after a match against a side from the northern Burundian town of Kiremba, two officials from the opposing team were arrested, charged with “conspiracy against the president” and imprisoned, after their players made Nkurunziza “fall several times” during the match.
Later that year Burundians voted in a referendum that paved the way for Nkurunziza to stay in power until 2034. Opposition sources claimed that ruling party stooges had accompanied voters into booths, while members of the Imbonerakure had urged supporters to harass opposition members, and even to “impregnate” them.
But as the presidential election approached in May this year Nkurunziza was forced to step aside by opponents within his own CNDD–FDD party and the elections were won by Évariste Ndayishimiye in what the opposition claimed was a rigged poll. Nkurunziza was due to step down from the presidency in August but retain the title of “Supreme Guide of Patriotism”, with wide if ill-defined powers.
In 1994 he married Denise Bucumi, who survives him with five children.
Pierre Nkurunziza, born December 18 1964, died June 8 2020