Former Burundi President Buyoya Dies from COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Pierre Buyoya, former president of the Republic of Burundi located in Central Africa, has died from the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

On the 18th (local time), according to AFP and others, a family member who wished to remain anonymous said, "President Pierre Buyoya passed away last night in Paris at the age of 71. He had COVID-19."

He added, "The deceased was hospitalized in Bamako (the capital of Mali) on the 9th and had been relying on an oxygen respirator. He died when he arrived in France by air last night for treatment and was transported by ambulance to a hospital in Paris."

Former President Buyoya, who had been the African Union (AU) special envoy for Mali and the Sahel region since 2012, resigned from his AU special envoy position at the end of last month after being sentenced to life imprisonment in Burundi on charges of assassinating his successor.

Belonging to the Tutsi ethnic minority in Burundi, he seized power at the age of 38 through a bloody coup in 1987 and worked to resolve conflicts between the two ethnic groups by including both Tutsis and Hutus in the cabinet. He also introduced a multi-party system for the first time in Burundi's history.

He was born in November 1949 in a poor farming family in Rutovu, southern Burundi, and graduated from the Belgian Army Military Academy in 1975. In 1979, he joined the central committee of the Union for National Progress (UPRONA), the sole party in Burundi at the time, and after entering the Burundi military in September 1984, he gained popularity within the military through strictness and decisiveness.

Despite having seized power through two coups, he faced difficulties due to coup attempts by junior officers opposing peace talks with the Hutu rebel forces. In April 2003, by transferring power to Hutu Vice President Domitien Ndayizeye, he paved the way for a political turning point that ended the decade-long ethnic civil war which had claimed 300,000 lives.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.