Outgoing Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza is dead.
The Burundi government announced the death on Tuesday, saying the head of state had succumbed to a heart attack.
“The Government of the Republic of Burundi announces with great sadness the unexpected death of His Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the Republic of Burundi, at the Karusi Fiftieth Anniversary Hospital following a cardiac arrest on June 8, 2020,” the government said.
Nkurunziza’s death comes just ten days after his wife Denise Bucumi Nkurunziza was airlifted to Nairobi after contracting COVID-19.
President Nkurunziza did not vie in his country’s May elections, the first time in 15 years that he did not run for the presidency.
He served three terms, the third of which sparked lengthy unrest in the country.
