Pierre Buyoya, former president of the small African nation of Burundi, died last night in Paris, France, at the age of 71 after contracting the 2019 coronavirus (Covid-19), several close family members told AFP.
President Buyoya died yesterday in Paris,” said a family member who asked to remain anonymous. He was infected with Covid-19,” said a family member who requested anonymity, “and several other relatives confirmed the news.
Buyoya served as the African Union’s envoy to the West African country of Mali and the African region of Sahel from 2012 until he stepped down in November.
Family members said Buyoya “was taken to the hospital in Bamako (Mali’s capital) on the 9th and was put on a respirator.
The source added: “He was transported to Paris yesterday afternoon, and his plane made a stopover on the way, arriving in France in the evening. He passed away in the ambulance on his way to a Paris hospital for treatment,” the source added.
Buyoya was sentenced to life in prison last October for his alleged involvement in the 1993 assassination of the president’s successor. He denounced the verdict as politically motivated at the time, but also resigned from his post as African Union envoy in November.
Buyoya, who is from the Tutsi ethnic minority in Burundi, first came to power in 1987 after a coup d’état, and lost to his Hutu rival Melchior Ndadaye in Burundi’s first presidential election in 1993.
But Ndadaye was killed by hardline Tutsi soldiers after only four months in office, leading to a long civil war between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi in Burundi. Buyoya later returned to power after a coup d’état and served from 1996 to 2003.
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