Outgoing Burundian president Nkurunziza dies
President Pierre Nkurunziza, who ruled the impoverished and unstable central African nation of Burundi for 15 years, has died, the government announced yesterday.
“The government of the Republic of Burundi announced with great sadness ... the unexpected death of his excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, president of Burundi,” it said in a tweeted statement, adding that he had died of a heart attack.
Burundi’s economy is in tatters and it is largely cut off by international donors after the UN documented the widespread rape, torture and murder of political opponents by ruling party activists and the state security forces.
Nkurunziza, 55, was due to stand down in August, when retired general Evariste Ndayishimiye, who successfully stood for the ruling party in last month’s elections, was due to take over.
The opposition said the elections were marred by rigging and violence, charges the government denied.
Nkurunziza would have preferred his ally, National Assembly president Pascal Nyabenda, to succeed him, according to the International Crisis Group think-tank, but the generals successfully lobbied for Ndayishimiye.
According to Burundi’s constitution, Nyabenda is now supposed to take over until Ndayishimiye starts his sevenyear term.
Journalists and human rights workers are routinely targeted in Burundi.
Last week, four journalists from the domestic news website Iwacu were sentenced to 2½ years in prison after they travelled to investigate reports of unrest in the northwest.
Burundi withdrew from the International Criminal Court in 2017, shut down the UN office on human rights last year, and expelled the representative of the World Health Organisation last month amid criticism of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
It has carried out few tests and held large rallies during the election period.
“As I learn of the passing of Pierre Nkurunziza, I think of the thousands of lives that his regime cut short. The families that won’t see justice,” Thierry Uwamahoro, a democracy activist and prominent government critic who lives in exile, tweeted.