Pierre Nkurunziza

Pierre Nkurunziza (18 December 19648 June 2020) was a Burundian politician who served as the ninth president of Burundi for almost 15 years from August 2005 until his death in June 2020.

Pierre Nkurunziza was born on 18 December 1964 in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, shortly after the country's independence from Belgian rule in 1962.

He was one of six children born into a family from Buye in Mwumba, Ngozi Province, where Nkurunziza spent his early years.

His father, Eustache Ngabisha, was a politician from the Hutu ethnic group and a Catholic.

Ngabisha was involved in the nationalist politics under the ruling Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progrès national, UPRONA) and was elected to the National Assembly in 1965.

Ngabisha became a provincial governor but was killed in the genocidal violence of 1972.

Nkurunziza's mother, Domitille Minani, was an assistant nurse from the Tutsi ethnic group who was Protestant.

Nkurunziza himself was considered to be Hutu.

Nkurunziza attended school in Ngozi and studied at the prestigious athénée in Gitega after his father's death.

He enrolled at the Institute of Physical Education and Sports at the University of Burundi and obtained a degree in physical education in 1990.

At the time, he was not known to be politically active.

After graduating, he taught at a school in Muramvya before becoming an assistant lecturer at the university in 1992.

He was also a football coach for Muzinga FC and Union Sporting in the country's first division.

Alongside his other roles, he taught at the Higher Institute for Military Cadres (Institut supérieur des cadres militaires, ISCAM) where he made important personal contacts with officers in the Burundian National Army who would subsequently become leading figures within the major rebel groups during the Civil War.

The newly elected president Melchior Ndadaye was assassinated in an attempted coup d'état in October 1993.

The killing sparked a wave of ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi factions and the start of the Burundian Civil War.

Nkurunziza married Denise Bucumi in 1994.

Nkurunziza was still teaching at the University of Burundi but was forced to flee in 1995 after hundreds of Hutu students were killed.

He spent several years in hiding in the bush and was himself sentenced to death in absentia by a government-backed court in 1998 for planting land mines.

At the time, he became associated with the moderate rebel group National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy (Conseil National Pour la Défense de la Démocratie – Forces pour la Défense de la Démocratie, CNDD–FDD), largely supported by ethnic Hutus.

By 1998, he had risen to the position of General Secretary of the CNDD–FDD and was in charge of coordinating the political and military wings.

He fought for their militia and gained the nickname "Pita".

A member of the Hutu ethnic group, Nkurunziza taught physical education before becoming involved in politics during the Burundian Civil War as part of the rebel National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy (Conseil National Pour la Défense de la Démocratie – Forces pour la Défense de la Démocratie, CNDD–FDD) of which he became leader in 2000.

The CNDD–FDD became a political party at the end of the Civil War and Nkurunziza was elected president.

Nkurunziza became the president of the CNDD–FDD on 28 August 2000 and presided over the movement as it moved towards a political compromise with the government.

He was nearly killed near Gitega in 2001 but interpreted his survival as a sign that he was destined to lead the group.

Nkurunziza himself became a born-again Protestant and supported the integration of Tutsis and other minority groups into the CNDD–FDD.

All five of Nkurunziza's siblings were killed in the Civil War, three of whom while fighting for the CNDD–FDD.

A series of agreements in 2003 paved the way for the CNDD–FDD to enter national politics, and allowed Nkurunziza to be reunited with his wife and surviving family members.

He became Minister for Good Government and the General Inspection of the State in the transitional government of Domitien Ndayizeye which was considered "a springboard post at a moment when electoral preparations were under way to complete the transition".

He was re-elected president of the CNDD–FDD, now a political party, in August 2004, and became its candidate for the forthcoming legislative and presidential elections.

The elections brought Nkurunziza and the CNDD–FDD to power with a large majority of the vote.

He succeeded Ndayizeye as the President of Burundi.

Nkurunziza's term as president began on 26 August 2005 and he soon adopted a number of popular policies.

He presided over the reconstruction of the Burundian state on the basis of the inter-ethnic compromise enshrined in the Arusha Accords which mandated the partition of state positions between Tutsi, Hutu, and the minority Twa ethnic groups.

The Party for the Liberation of the Hutu PeopleNational Forces of Liberation (Parti pour la libération du peuple HutuForces nationales de libération, PALIPEHUTU–FNL), the final Hutu rebel faction in the Civil War, was demobilised in 2008.

He held the post controversially for three terms, facing bloody opposition, sparking significant public unrest in 2015.

He announced his intention not to stand for re-election in 2020 and instead ceded power to Évariste Ndayishimiye, whose candidacy he had endorsed.

He died on 8 June 2020 shortly before the official end of his term.

He was the longest-ruling president in Burundian history.