Burundi Prominent Ministers Sacked

Gamba la Nyoka · 2015-05-18T17:56:36+00:00

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has relieved three ministers from their posts following a recent military coup attempt by the countrys top generals, led by the former intelligence chief, Major General Godefroid Niyombare. Presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said on Monday that the 51-year-old president sacked Defense Minister Pontien Gaciyubwenge, and named Emmanuel Ntahonkiriye, a civilian, to replace him. Alain Aime Nyamitwe was also appointed foreign minister to succeed Laurent Kavakure. Nkurunziza also fired Trade Minister Marie-Rose Nizigiyimana. The United Nations says the coup attempt forced more than 100,000 Burundians to leave their violence-stricken country and take refuge in neighboring countries. Karin de Gruijl, the senior communications officer with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said on May 15 that nearly 70,200 Burundians have fled to the eastern African country of Tanzania, 26,300 to Rwanda and about 10,000 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo since early April. Nkurunziza returned to the presidential palace in the capital, Bujumbura, on May 14. Tens of people have been killed and scores injured since late April, when the National Council for the Defense of Democracy - Forces for the Defense of Democracy, which is the ruling party in Burundi and known by its French acronym, CNDD-FDD, nominated Nkurunziza as its candidate for the June 26 presidential elections Burundi, a small nation in Africas Great Lakes region, emerged in 2005 from a brutal 12-year civil war. In October 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, the first democratically-elected president of Burundi, who came from the Hutu ethnic group, was assassinated after only 100 days in office. The assassination triggered deadly ethnic violence between Hutus and Tutsis, another ethnic group in Burundi. Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the majority Hutu tribe, has been Burundis president for two legal five-year terms. His intention to seek a third term is viewed by the opponents as a clear violation of the constitution and the Arusha Agreements, which marked an end to the civil war. The two documents limit the presidents stay in office to two five-year terms. The incumbent president, however, has rejected claims that he is violating the constitution by seeking to remain in power, arguing that he can still run for president as his rise to power after the civil war did not come through direct votes. Source: presstv.ir MP/HSN/HMV

Thread starter Gamba la Nyoka
Start date May 18, 2015

Gamba la Nyoka

JF-Expert Member

May 18, 2015

Tangawizi

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