Bujumbura, BURUNDI
Burundi's government announced the "unexpected death" of the president, saying that he had died following cardiac arrest. Pierre Nkurunziza (pictured) had been president of the smaller neighbor to the DRC, Uganda and Tanzania since 2005.
"The Government of the Republic of Burundi announces with great sadness the unexpected death of His Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the Republic of Burundi... following cardiac arrest on June 8, 2020," the government said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Nkurunziza's death comes just weeks before he was due to step down following Evariste Ndayishimiye's electoral victory last month — in a vote the sitting president did not contest.
Nkurunziza assumed power on August 26, 2005 and was reelected in 2010 with more than 91% of the vote, albeit with the opposition boycotting that election.
He won a controversial third term in 2015 that led to conflict and hundreds of deaths in Burundi as supporters and opponents argued over whether he was entitled to seek a third term.
Bujumbura, BURUNDIFrom 1993 Burundi endured a 12-year civil war which killed some 300,000 people and was driven by similar ethnic tensions to those witnessed in the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda.
During
that civil war Nkurunziza fought in the rebel Hutu group that
went on to become the African country's ruling party, the CNDD-FDD.
Burundi endured a 12-year civil war which killed some 300,000 people
He initially held the position of a minister in a transitional government in 2003 but once the conflict came to an end, Nkurunziza earned a number of CNDD-FDD victories in votes held through June and July of 2005, ultimately leading to him being appointed president that August.
In 2018, he said he would not seek a fourth term in May's election.
Nkurunziza was also in power when Burundi became the first country in the world to withdraw from the International Criminal Court having previously been a ratified member.
Burundi's government has declared a week of mourning. - Africa
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