Former Burundian President Pierre Buyoya's Body Repatriated from Mali

The body of Burundi's former president Pierre Buyoya was repatriated to his home country on Tuesday, over three years after his burial in Mali. Buyoya, credited with promoting democracy but also accused of involvement in his successor's assassination, died in Paris in December 2020 due to COVID-19. He was interred in Bamako, Mali, where he had served as the African Union's special envoy to Mali and the Sahel.

A senior Burundian official stated that while Buyoya had the right to be buried in his homeland, he would not receive the honors of a former head of state due to a sentence against him.

The plane carrying his remains arrived in Bujumbura on Tuesday afternoon. The family, honoring Buyoya's last wishes, received permission from Burundian authorities to repatriate and rebury him. The reburial will occur in a private ceremony on Wednesday at the family property in Rutovo.

Buyoya, an ethnic Tutsi army officer, seized power in a 1987 coup and stepped down in 1993 after losing the first democratic elections to Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu. He returned to power in 1996 through another coup and signed the Arusha Accords in 2000 to end the civil war. He stepped down in 2003 under the agreement's terms.

In 2020, Buyoya was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment, along with 18 others, for Ndadaye's assassination, which sparked a decade-long conflict resulting in 300,000 deaths. Buyoya dismissed the trial as a "sham" but resigned from his AU post to clear his name.

Burundi has been under CNDD-FDD party rule since 2005. In 2015, protests and a failed coup followed then-president Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term, leading to at least 1,200 deaths and 400,000 fleeing the country. Nkurunziza died in June 2020 before transferring power to Evariste Ndayishimiye, who remains president.