30 Facts About Pierre Buyoya

Pierre Buyoya was a Burundian army officer and politician who served two terms as President of Burundi in 1987 to 1993 and 1996 to 2003.

An ethnic Tutsi, Buyoya joined the sole legal party, UPRONA and quickly rose through the ranks of the Burundian military.

Pierre Buyoya then established a National Reconciliation Commission that created a new constitution in 1992 which allowed for a multi-party system and a non-ethnic government.

Pierre Buyoya selected Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu as his vice-president, who succeeded him as president in 2003.

Pierre Buyoya was born in Rutovu, Bururi Province, on 24 November 1949 in Belgian-administered Ruanda-Urundi.

The name "Pierre Buyoya" was not the family's surname, but instead can be translated as "baby".

Pierre Buyoya later recollected that his parents had lost several other children and feared that he too might die young, thus initially picking the name "baby" for their son and deciding that they could later change the name.

Pierre Buyoya received a primary education at a Catholic mission in Rutovu from 1958 to 1963.

Pierre Buyoya thereafter attended the Ecole moyenne pedagogique until 1967.

Pierre Buyoya enlisted as an officer the Burundian Army and studied at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Belgium, rising to the rank of major.

Academically, Pierre Buyoya studied social sciences, examined armoured cavalry, and defended a thesis concerning the Algerian National Liberation Front.

Pierre Buyoya married Sophie Ntaraka in 1978, and the couple had four children.

Pierre Buyoya entered the long-term single party, Union for National Progress, and acquired a position on its Central Committee in 1979.

Pierre Buyoya joined the General Staff of the Army in 1982 and was made responsible for training.

Pierre Buyoya's rapid rise through the military hierarchy earned him the nickname "Old Man", and he was well-respected by his fellow soldiers.

Pierre Buyoya is often seen at soccer games and reads a lot.

Pierre Buyoya eschews a uniform, though his leisure suits recall French summer khakis.

In September 1987, Pierre Buyoya led a military coup d'etat against the regime of Jean-Baptiste Bagaza who had taken power in another coup in November 1976.

Pierre Buyoya's coup was reportedly organized by non-commissioned officers who had disapproved of Bagaza's plan to limit army service to ten years and to end the soldiers' right to free electricity for living spaces outside barracks.

Pierre Buyoya led the country as the chairman of a 31-person military committee of national safety.

Pierre Buyoya refused to properly investigate the mass killings, but he recognized his government's weakness in the face of popular discontent as well as international condemnations over the massacres.

Pierre Buyoya appointed a Commission of National Reconciliation, and he was officially proclaimed President of Burundi on 9 September 1988.

Pierre Buyoya chose Adrien Sibomana, a well-respected Hutu, as his prime minister, and made efforts to ethnically balance his cabinet.

The Commission of National Reconciliation created a new constitution that Pierre Buyoya approved in 1992.

Some human rights groups suspected Pierre Buyoya of supporting the putschists, while several soldiers who participated accused him of helping plan the coup.

On 25 July 1996, with strong support and backup from the army, Pierre Buyoya returned to power in a military coup, ousting interim President Ntibantunganya who had been contested by the population due to his failure to stop killings perpetrated by rebels.

Pierre Buyoya entered a new "partnership" with the National Assembly in June 1998 which was dominated by the Hutu-backed Front for Democracy in Burundi.

Pierre Buyoya was appointed by the African Union to lead a peace mission in Chad in 2008.

Pierre Buyoya was appointed to another mission in Mali.

Pierre Buyoya was buried in Bamako on 29 December 2020.