In line with the Arusha accord, a Hutu president is taking over from Pierre Buyoya
New President Domitien Ndayizéyé was sworn in on 30 April in Bujumbura, replacing President Pierre Buyoya for the last 18 months of transition to multi-party rule. Ndayizéyé, 49, is currently Vice-President in the national reconciliation government, named on 23 July 2001 by the signatories to the Arusha accord of 28 August 2000 (AC Vol 43 No 18). He is the first civilian and the first Hutu President since the 1996 coup d'état that brought Buyoya to power. Ndayizéyé fled to Belgium during the genocide of Hutus in 1972. He studied mechanical engineering there and led a student movement, the Mouvement des Etudiants Progressistes Barundi (Meproba). Returning to Africa, he worked for a car spares supplier in Rwanda, where he met Melchior Ndadayé, founder of the Front pour la Démocratie au Burundi (Frodebu), who took over as elected President in July 1993, then was assassinated in a coup that October.
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