President Pierre Nkurunziza dies at 55

Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has died of a heart attack at 55, according to the government.

Iran PressAfrica: Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has died, the government of the central African country announced in a statement posted on Twitter.

The government statement said that Nkurunziza, 55, had died of a heart attack.

Nkurunziza took office 15 years ago, and his decision to run for a disputed third term in 2015 led Burundi into turmoil that left hundreds of people dead. Facing allegations of widespread abuses, his government angrily rejected scrutiny, becoming the first country to leave the International Criminal Court.

His death comes on the heels of elections on May 20 in which his hand-picked successor, Evariste Ndayishimiye, secured a seven-year term as president -- a result confirmed by the constitutional court last Thursday.

 

He came to power at the end of Burundi's 12-year civil war, which killed 300,000 people and was driven by similar ethnic tensions as the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, where Hutu extremists slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

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