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Burundi Government: President Nkurunziza Dies of Heart Attack

Edward Rwema

   Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has died after suffering what the
   government said was a heart attack, two months before he was scheduled
   to leave office.

   Nkurunziza died at the Karusi Hospital in eastern Burundi late Monday,
   two days after he reported feeling unwell and was taken to the
   facility, the government reported in a news release posted Tuesday on
   social media.

     URGENT: Le Gouvernement de la République du Burundi annonce avec
     une très grande tristesse le décès inopiné de Son Excellence
     Pierre Nkurunziza, Président de la République du Burundi, survenu
     à l'Hôpital du Cinquantenaire de Karusi suite à un arrêt
     cardiaque ce 8 juin 2020. [1]pic.twitter.com/PP46kKzAM5
     -- Burundi Government (@BurundiGov) [2]June 9, 2020

   VOA's Central Africa service reported a heavy military presence around
   the hospital Tuesday.

   Nkurunziza's wife, Denise Bucumi Nkurunziza, was airlifted to a
   hospital in Kenya's capital in late May after contracting COVID-19. She
   is still recovering in a Nairobi hospital, but her illness triggered
   rumors that the president had caught the disease as well.

   Nkurunziza, 55, was sworn in as president in 2005, at the end of
   Burundi's civil war. He was re-elected in 2010. His decision to run for
   a controversial third term in 2015 set off a failed coup and violence
   that left hundreds dead and prompted hundreds of thousands of
   Burundians to flee the country.

   He was due to step down Aug. 20 after his hand-picked successor,
   General Evariste Ndayishimiye, won the presidential election on May 20.

References

   1. https://t.co/PP46kKzAM5
   2. https://twitter.com/BurundiGov/status/1270359764065759233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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