Burundi: Évariste Ndayishimiye, of the guerrillas in power

Burundian President-elect Évariste Ndayishimiye upon his arrival at the polling station on May 20, 2020 in Gitega, Burundi. AFP

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The candidate for the ruling party, Évariste Ndayishimiye, won the presidential election on Sunday without surprise. At 52, Évariste Ndayishimiye therefore rose to supreme office after having been in the shadow of outgoing president Pierre Nkurunziza for fifteen years.

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Minister of the Interior and Public Security in 2006, then in turn head of the president's military and civilian cabinet, Évariste Ndayishimiye has been a pillar of the system in power for fifteen years. This devout Catholic, originally from the Gitega region, is a follower of Pierre Nkurunziza. At the end of the 1990s, the two men climbed one by one the ranks of the rebellion which Évariste Ndayishimiye had joined after having escaped in 1995 from a massacre of Hutu students perpetrated by Tutsi extremists.

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The latter became one of the main military leaders of the rebellion. In this capacity, he participated in 2003 in the signing of the ceasefire agreement which ended the civil war. From there, the rise of General Ndayishimiye takes place in the shadow of Pierre Nkukunziza. In 2016, he became general secretary of the CNDD-FDD and left the army to be able to claim the supreme magistracy. On January 26, 2020, he was inducted as candidate for the ruling party .

Not Nkurunziza's favorite

Pierre Nkurunziza however preferred the candidacy of the President of the National Assembly Pascal Nyabenda, but he finally gave in under pressure from a small group of generals who did not want a civilian at the head of the state. The question now is whether Évariste Ndayishimiye will manage to free himself from these generals and his predecessor and reconcile a country in crisis for five years.

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  • Burundi
  • Africa
  • Evariste Ndayishimiye

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