Pierre Nkurunziza

Pierre Nkurunziza (18 December 1964 – 8 June 2020) was a Burundian politician, educator, and rebel leader who served as the ninth president of Burundi from 2005 until his death in 2020. He was the longest-serving president in Burundian history, having served for nearly 15 years.

Born into a Hutu family in Bujumbura, 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 2001. The CNDD–FDD became a political party at the end of the Civil War in January 2005 and Nkurunziza was elected president by Parliament in August of that same year.

During his first term, Nkurunziza took a number of popular policies. He rebuilt the state from the civil war, and basis of the inter-ethnic compromise enshrined in the Arusha Accords, which recognised the partition of state positions between Tutsi, Hutu, and the minority Twa ethnic groups. Nkurunziza played a major role in the demobilisation of the Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People – National Forces of Liberation (PALIPEHUTU–FNLd), the final Hutu rebel faction in the Civil War in 2008. In 2010, Nkurunziza won a second term despite boycott from opposition parties and accusations of fraud.