Bujumbura. — Burundi government yesterday said the outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza (55) has died of heart attack.
In a statement posted on Twitter, the government announced “with great sorrow to Burundians and the international community” the passing of the president.
According to the statement, Nkurunziza had attended a volleyball match on Saturday afternoon and was taken to hospital that evening after falling ill.
Although he appeared to recover on Sunday and spoke to those around him, his condition suddenly deteriorated on Monday morning.
He then suffered a heart attack and despite an immediate resuscitation attempt, doctors were unable to revive him. Nkurunziza died at a hospital in Karuzi, eastern Burundi.
The government said there would be a period of national mourning for seven days from today and flags would be flown at half-mast.
Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, said the government’s stated cause of death had been met with scepticism among some Burundians on social media and elsewhere.
“About 10 days ago, Denise Nkurunziza, the first lady of Burundi, flew to Nairobi seeking medical treatment for a reason that officially was undisclosed but a lot of the local press here reported that she was suffering from COVID-19,” he said.
“So now there’s going to be of course a lot of speculation and guessing from Burundians, from the diaspora about this claim that the president had a heart attack.”
Last month, Burundi expelled the representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) amid criticism of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
It has carried out very few coronavirus tests and held large rallies in the lead-up to the country’s May 20 election.
In power since 2005, Nkurunziza was due to be replaced in August by political ally Evariste Ndayishimiye, who was declared earlier this month the winner of the vote.
“He leaves us a legacy that we will never forget and we will continue his high-quality work that he has done for our country, Burundi,” Ndayishimiye said in a Twitter post.
Nkurunziza was chosen to lead the country following a 1993-2005 civil war that killed about 300 000 people. He and Ndayishimiye fought alongside each other as rebels in the conflict.
The peace process, known as the Arusha Accords, specified that a president’s term can be renewed only once.
But Nkurunziza, who won a second term in 2010, announced he was eligible for a third term in 2015 because he had not been chosen the first time by universal suffrage.
The deadly turmoil that followed badly damaged ties with the international community, and Burundi became the first country to leave the International Criminal Court after it started investigating allegations of state-sponsored crimes including murder, rape and torture. — Al Jazeera.
– HERALD
