Page 14 - Issue 9

Obituary

Pierre

Nkurunziza

passes on

Late President, Pierre Nkurunziza

ierre Nkurunziza, who has died democracy. As the leader of the CNDD– against humanity in 2017, he responded
Punexpectedly aged 55, was the FDD (National Council for the Defence by withdrawing Burundi from the Rome;
outgoing president of Burundi whose of Democracy – Forces for the Defence the first nation ever to do so. In 2019, he
15-year-rule, particularly towards the of Democracy) Hutu rebel group, he had went a step further and shut down the
end, was marked by brutal repression. begun negotiating a peace deal in 2001. UN’s human rights office in the country
Nkurunziza became the president of Two years later he signed the Arusha after 23 years, claiming he had made
Burundi, a landlocked East African agreement, which ended the civil war, sufficient progress in human rights.
country in 2005. in which 300,000 people died. He Nkurunziza’s was only 8years when
He was re-elected in 2010 and in transformed his rebel group into a his father, Eustache Ngabisha, a former
2015 when he won a controversial political party and joined the transition Member of Parliament and governor
third term despite opposition protests government as a minister for good of Ngozi and Kayansi provinces, was a
and international condemnation. His governance. victim of the 1972 ethnic killings.
candidacy had been condemned as In 2005 Nkurunziza became president One of six children, Nkurunziza was
unconstitutional by the opposition, after his party won the elections by a the son of a Tutsi assistant nurse mother
sparking months of protests and an landslide. A year later he lifted a curfew and a Hutu politician father, Eustache
attempted coup in May of that year. that had been in place since 1972. In Ngabisha, who had served as a governor
He died just weeks before he was meant 2007 Burundian soldiers joined an before being killed in 1972 during a wave
to hand over power to his political ally African Union (AU) peacekeeping force of ethnic violence against the Hutus.
Evariste Ndayishimiye, the winner of in troubled Somalia. The Paris Club As he left the Presidency, Nkurunziza
May, 2020 presidential election, a well group of creditors cancelled Burundi’s had be elevated to the status of
managed transition that caught political debt in 2009. “Paramount Leader and Champion
observers flatfooted, with many having But after being re-elected with 92% of Patriotism”, a title that came with a
expected him to stick on power. of the vote in the 2010 poll, which $535,000 retirement package and villa.
Born in Ngozi, Nkurunziza was the was boycotted by many opposition His cause of death was officially given as
son of Ngabisha and of Domitille (nee candidates, Nkurunziza became a heart attack, yet many suspect it was
Minani), a Tutsi assistant nurse. After increasingly authoritarian and Covid-19. Ten days before his death,
his father’s death, his family moved to intolerant. In 2014 he even banned his wife Denise was airlifted to Kenya
Gitega, where Nkurunziza attended jogging out of “fears it could be used by for treatment for COVID-19 and an
Athenée de Gitega secondary school. his opponents as a cover for subversion”. underlying condition, according to
A born-again Christian, fitness In 2015, Nkurunziza’s decision to run Daily Nation.
enthusiast and keen footballer who in for an unconstitutional third term led to Earlier, Nkurunziza had thrown
later life owned his own team, Hallelujah an outbreak of protests and violence that all caution to the wind and refused
FC, Nkurunziza studied physical spread across the country. He responded to introduce any social distancing,
education at the University of Burundi. with brutal violence. Over the next lockdown rules or any containment
After graduation in 1990, he worked as two years, his youth-led militia group, measures. When World Health
a high school PE teacher at Muramvya known as the Imbonerakure, as well as Organization officials questioned his
high school. He married Denise various state security forces, killed more governments’ coronavirus statistics
Bucumi, who later became a pastor, in than 1,200 Burudians in an attempt to earlier this year, he expelled them out of
1994. He later worked as a lecturer at the quash street protests. Four hundred the country.
University of Burundi, in Bujumbura. thousand more fled the country.
He is survived by Denise, by five
When Nkurunziza first came to power When donors cut aid, he retaliated by children, Kelly, Kevin, Jonathan, Naomi
following the 1993-2005 Burundian civil barring most foreign media outlets and Dorcas, and a sister. Nkurunziza’s
war, which pitted Hutu rebels against the from reporting inside Burundi. When Mother, Domtillie Minani died only a
Tutsi-led army, he had seemed genuinely the International Criminal Court (ICC) day after his Death.
committed to the ideals of peace and opened an investigation into crimes

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