Pierre Buyoya

Pierre Buyoya (24 November 1949 – 17 December 2020) was a Burundian army officer and politician who served two terms as President of Burundi in 1987 to 1993 and 1996 to 2003.

He was the second-longest-serving president in Burundian history.

An ethnic Tutsi, Buyoya joined the sole legal party, UPRONA and quickly rose through the ranks of the Burundian military.

Pierre Buyoya was born in Rutovu, Bururi Province, on 24 November 1949 in Belgian-administered Ruanda-Urundi.

His father, Rurikumunwa, was ethnically a Tutsi-Hima of the Batyaba clan.

He received a primary education at a Catholic mission in Rutovu from 1958 to 1963.

He thereafter attended the Ecole moyenne pédagogique until 1967.

He enlisted as an officer the Burundian Army and studied at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Belgium, rising to the rank of major.

Academically, Buyoya studied social sciences, examined armoured cavalry, and defended a thesis concerning the Algerian National Liberation Front.

Once done with his studies in Belgium, he attended the General Staff College in France from August 1976 to January 1977 and the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College in West Germany from 1980 to 1982.

Buyoya married Sophie Ntaraka in 1978, and the couple had four children.

He entered the long-term single party, Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progrès national, UPRONA), and acquired a position on its Central Committee (Comité central) in 1979.

Buyoya joined the General Staff of the Army in 1982 and was made responsible for training.

His rapid rise through the military hierarchy earned him the nickname "Old Man", and he was well-respected by his fellow soldiers.

He renewed his party membership in 1984.

In 1987, he led a military coup d'état that overthrew his predecessor Jean-Baptiste Bagaza and enabled him to seize power.

In September 1987, Buyoya led a military coup d'état against the regime of Jean-Baptiste Bagaza who had taken power in another coup in November 1976.

He led the country as the chairman of a 31-person military committee of national safety.

He proclaimed an agenda of economic liberalisation.

As in previous regimes, he presided over an oppressive ruling junta consisting primarily of Tutsi.

Leading an oppressive military junta, Hutu uprisings in 1988 led to the killings of an estimated 20,000 people.

This led to a Hutu uprising in August 1988, which caused approximately 20,000 deaths.

After these killings, Buyoya appointed a Commission of National Reconciliation (Commission pour la réconciliation nationale).

On 9 September he was officially proclaimed President of Burundi.

In early October he appointed a mixed government of both civilian and military figures and awarded himself the post of Minister of National Defence.

Buyoya then established a National Reconciliation Commission that created a new constitution in 1992 which allowed for a multi-party system and a non-ethnic government.

This commission created a new constitution that Buyoya approved in 1992.

This constitution called for a non-ethnic government with a president and a parliament.

Running as a candidate in the 1993 Burundian presidential election, he was defeated by Hutu candidate Melchior Ndadaye of the FRODEBU opposition party.

Ndadaye was assassinated during another attempted coup after only three months in office, leading to a series of retaliatory killings that culminated in the Burundian Civil War.

During the war, Buyoya returned to power in another coup d'état in 1996.

During his second presidency, he created an ethnically inclusive government by establishing a partnership with FROBEDU.

The New York Times reported in 1996 that "[n]o one could recall his ever telling a joke. He is often seen at soccer games and reads a lot. He eschews a uniform, though his leisure suits recall French summer khakis."

This led to the 2000 Arusha Accords which introduced ethnic power sharing.

He selected Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu as his vice-president, who succeeded him as president in 2003.

The war ended two years later.

Following the end of the war, Buyoya became a senator for life under the terms of the 2004 constitution.

During his post-presidency, he was also sent as an African Union envoy during peace missions in Chad and Mali.

In November 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison in absentia by a Burundinan court for his suspected role in the 1993 coup attempt that assassinated Ndadaye.

He died of COVID-19 two months later.