Burundi president died from virus, claims opposition

PIERRE NKURUNZIZA, Burundi’s strongman president, may have become the world’s first leader to die of Covid-19, according to opposition sources.

The Burundian government, which insisted for months that its country had been spared from the coronavirus pandemic because of its faith in God, announced that Mr Nkurunziza had died of a heart attack. He was 55.

The government announced “with great sadness the unexpected death of His Excellency, Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the Republic of Burundi, at the Karusi Fiftieth Anniversary Hospital following a cardiac arrest on June 8, 2020”, on its official Twitter account yesterday. However, opposition sources and journalists living in exile claimed that Mr Nkurunziza had been undergoing treatment for Covid-19 after he fell ill over the weekend.

His widow, Denise, had been admitted to a private hospital in the Kenyan capital Nairobi late last month after suffering similar symptoms, according to Kenyan officials. She was flown into Nairobi on an air ambulance equipped with a portable isolation chamber.

An opposition source said that one of the country’s few ventilators had been flown by helicopter to Karuzi in a desperate bid to save the president’s life.

“It arrived too late,” he said. “He deteriorated very quickly.”

A block of the hospital was reportedly evacuated, and the late president was placed under the personal care of Burundi’s health minister, Thaddée Ndikumana. The source said Mr Nkurunziza died on Monday but his death was kept quiet for more than 24 hours. Burundi officially has only 83 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and one death.

The low infection rate, although always quietly questioned by Burundi’s cowed opposition, was hailed as an example of divine favour.

Mr Nkurunziza had ruled the central African state since 2005 but was due to stand down as president – although retaining much power – in August, to be replaced by Evariste Ndayishimiye.