The Presidency of Burundi announced the death of President Pierre Nkurunziza, on Tuesday, from heart failure. The former rebel leader spent 15 mostly precarious years in power.
An evangelical who believed that he had been chosen by God to rule the East African nation, Nkurunziza took office in 2005 when he was elected by the Parliament.
“The Government of the Republic of Burundi is very sad to announce the sudden death of His Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, the President of the Republic of Burundi. Following a heart failure on June 8, 2020,” it said in a post on his official Twitter account.
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Moreover, his death happened in a hospital in the eastern city of Karuzi; according to a statement by the Presidency of Burundi.
In 2015, his contentious and eventually successful third-term bid threw the nation into crisis.
The violence left over 1200 civilians dead, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands. Besides, it caused the government to try to clamp down on the opposition and the media.
Burundi, ranked among the three poorest countries in the world by the World Bank, has since been subject to sanctions from its major donors.
More recently, Nkurunziza had come in for intense criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, the nation has taken little steps to battle the outbreak. Meanwhile, officials say that God protects Burundi against its worst ravages.
Officially Burundi has registered 83 cases and one death. But doctors in Bujumbura talking to AFP on condition anonymity claim several cases and deaths go unreported.
Nkurunziza decision not to run for President
Burundi adopted constitutional amendments in a referendum in May 2018; that would allow Nkurunziza to rule through 2034, after a campaign that Human Rights Watch said was characterized by systematic suppression and abuses.
But Nkurunziza declared the next month in a surprising move that he would not run again.
In addition, his death comes after the May 20 election in which his hand-picked successor, Evariste Ndayishimiye, won a seven-year term as President. A verdict vetted last Thursday by the Constitutional Tribunal.
Ndayishimiye’s swearing-in ceremony should come in August.
Tuesday’s statement from the Presidency of Burundi said Nkurunziza’s hospitalization throughout the weekend, and on Monday, his health “suddenly changed.”
“The medical team could not save the patient despite intense, continuous, and adapted care,” it said.
Like Ndayishimiye, Nkurunziza battled with the minority Tutsi-dominated army for the ethnic Hutu rebellion during the country’s civil war of 1993-2006. The war saw 300,000 civilians dead.
Legislators passed a law in January offering outgoing presidents a golden parachute along with a luxury villa and a one-off sum equal to over half a million dollars.
Earlier this year, the governing party granted him the role of “visionary.”
Tuesday’s announcement from the Presidency stated that the nation would hold seven days of mourning to mark his passing.
