Page 5 - Nile Explorer Issue 12

Obituary

Pierre Buyoya,

Former Burundian

president who led

two coups, dies at

71

ierre Buyoya, a former leader of
PBurundi who two months ago was
sentenced in absentia to life in prison
over the 1993 assassination of President
Melchior Ndadaye and the massacres The late, Pierre Buyoya former President of Burundi
that followed, has died in Paris. He was
71. It is not yet known where or when the a more democratic system in one of
His death was announced Dec. 18 by former head of state will be buried. Africa’s smallest nations. He stepped
Burundi’s state-controlled broadcaster. “Affable and experienced, he unselfishly down in 1993 after the country’s first
Mr. Buyoya was diagnosed with covid-19 committed himself to the preservation democratic elections, during which he
in Mali, where he was serving as the of Mali’s territorial integrity and was resoundingly beaten by Ndadaye, a
African Union’s high representative for sovereignty,” Mali’s interim leader, Bah Hutu.
Mali and the Sahel until he was forced to N’Daw, said in a statement. But hardline ethnic Tutsi soldiers killed
resign after his conviction by Burundi’s A member of the ethnic Tutsi minority, Ndadaye just four months into his term,
Supreme Court. Mr. Buyoya seized power twice and plunging Burundi into years of civil
Buyoya served as the African Union’s led Burundi for 13 years. Six years war between the majority Hutus and
special envoy to Mali and the Sahel from after his first coup, he lost elections in minority Tutsis.
2012 until November this year. 1993 to Ndadaye, who became the first Buyoya became president again
He resigned after being sentenced democratically elected president in following a coup, and governed Burundi
in October to life imprisonment in the history of Burundi, one of Africa’s from 1996 to 2003.
Burundi over the 1993 assassination of poorest and most densely populated In 2000, he signed the Arusha Accords,
his successor, Melchior Ndadaye. countries. an agreement aimed at ending the civil
Buyoya was sentenced in absentia over Ndadaye was killed three months after war, which left an estimated 300,000
the murder, along with some 20 military he was sworn in, along with officials people dead between 1993 and 2006.
officials and civilians who were also including his ministers, the national Buyoya stepped down in 2003 in line
given sentences ranging from 20 years to assembly speaker and deputy speakers. with the accords.
life imprisonment. The deaths triggered a decade-long civil Another Burundian former president,
Buyoya argued the trial was “political” war in which more than 300,000 people Pierre Nkurunziza, died in June aged
and “conducted in a scandalous manner”, died and 470,000 became refugees. 55 of suspected COVID-19, although,
adding that he was resigning his post in In 1996, Mr. Buyoya returned to officially government announced
order to defend himself and clear his power with backing from the army, the cause of death as heart failure.
name. prompting economic sanctions from the Nkurunziza had suffered “respiratory
Buyoya contracted coronavirus while international community. distress” before dying.
in the Malian capital Bamako, and for Mr. Buyoya was born in 1949 and grew Unlike its neighbors, Burundi had
the past week had been hospitalized up in the town of Rutovu. He graduated ignored the spread of coronavirus
in the city’s Pasteur Clinic. His health from the Royal Military Academy under Nkurunziza, claiming God had
suddenly deteriorated while on artificial in Brussels and served as an army spared the country from its ravages of
respiration. major before taking power in the 1987 the pandemic. His successor President
“He was evacuated to Paris yesterday coup, which ended the 11-year rule of Evariste Ndayishimiye quickly declared
afternoon. His plane made a stopover President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza. Covid-19 the country’s “biggest enemy”.
and arrived in France in the evening,” An ethnic Tutsi, Buyoya made his start Like neighbouring Tanzania, Burundi, a
the family member said. in the military before rising to power in deeply isolated country has no statistic
“He died as the ambulance was taking a coup in 1987. on the spread of coronavirus in the
him to hospital in Paris for treatment.” During his first term he worked towards country.

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