With the demise of Pierre Nkurunziza, all eyes are on Burundi’s new president as he inherits a political framework that has repressed press freedom and silenced independent media voices.
Former Burundian president, the late Pierre Nkurunziza
Stringer/AFP via GettyImages
The former president’s complex legacy has often been marred by violence.
Burundi’s president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye signs a condolence book for Burundian president Pierre Nkurunziza.
(Photo by Evrard Ngendakumana/Xinhua via Getty)
The sudden death of Burundi’s former president, Pierre Nkurunziza, marks the end of a long reign, characterised by violent political crises.
President Pierre Nkurunziza arrives to inaugurate Burundi’s Chinese-built state house on September 27, 2019.
(Photo by ONESPHORE NibigIra/AFP via Getty Images)
If the referendum goes President Pierre Nkrunziza’s way, it will also be a further blow to ordinary Burundians, who live in a state of hardship and adversity.
An elderly woman displays her inked finger after casting her vote during the 2016 presidential elections in Uganda.
Reuters/James Akena
The outcome of the race between increasingly artful electoral manipulation and limitless possible manifestations of democratic expression is never entirely certain.
Zambia has become increasingly ruled by fear under President Edgar Lungu.
EPA/Philippe Wojazer
Zambia has gone from a country where people engaged freely in open political debate to one where most people now look over their shoulders to see who’s listening.
A protestor uses grass to obscure his identity during a protest against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term in Bujumbura, Burundi.
Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
The prospects for reconciliation are bleak. Formal gestures by the government to nudge the opposition parties to join an intra-Burundi dialogue have consistently failed.
A policewoman carries a Burundi flag during a protest against President Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term.
Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
The competition between the two authoritarian regimes has become a fact that, given the regional context, is here to last. It justifies repression and indefinitely postpones democratic expression.
Burundi’s president (centre) on a visit in 2014. He would do well to meet now for peace talks.
Ilyas A. Abukar/AMISOM Public Information
Fears over violence in the African nation bring its leader to a crossroads.
Maintaining law and order in Burundi is proving increasingly difficult as the number of militias organised along ethnic lines increases.
Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
The “quick fix” nature of the Arusha Peace Agreement seems to have come back to haunt Burundi. Ethnic protests threaten to tear the country apart, leading it to the path of a failed state.
Vendors sell bananas in an open market in a village near Bujumbura. Burundians are being driven deeper into poverty.
Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
Whenever the crisis in Burundi is discussed, the economy is often overlooked, even though it is central to understanding the backdrop to the most severe crisis since the end of the civil war.
More than 100,000 people have fled Burundi since violence erupted in April.
Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
Rwanda and Burundi, once the conjoined twins of East Africa, marked over five decades of going separate ways since independence. Today, the difference in their fortunes couldn’t be more stark.
Senior lecturer in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at the University of Malawi and Research Associate, Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town
Associated senior researcher, Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University and the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI); and Head of Research, Senior Researcher Peace and Conflict Research (Folke Bernadotte Academy), Uppsala University