The government of Burundi on Tuesday announced the “unexpected” death of president Pierre Nkurunziza. He was 55.
Nkurunziza had recently agreed to step down after a 15-year rule that was characterized by brutal crackdowns and economic stagnation. His chosen successor won an election last month that was marred by irregularities. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Burundi, a country of 11 million people wedged between Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Lake Tanganyika, Africa’s deepest lake, suffered through a 12-year civil war that mirrored some of the dynamics of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, with which it shares a similar language and ethnic makeup.
Nkurunziza took power after the war, which resulted in around 300,000 deaths, but subsequent crackdowns by his government on dissident groups caused hundreds of thousands of others to flee the country.
Nkurunziza extended his mandate on power in 2015 in a move seen as unconstitutional by his opponents, and more than 1,200 were killed by state security forces and a quasi-official militia known as the Imbonerakure during an ensuing uprising, according to the United Nations. Almost all of the 400,000 who were displaced by the violence remain in camps, mostly in Tanzania.
According to the country’s constitution, the president of the legislature should take control of the government until the inauguration of Évariste Ndayishimiye, scheduled for August 20, who won last month’s election.
The Washington Post
