This archive report was first published on 15 June 2020.
President Pierre Nkurunziza died on June 8, 2020, at the age of 55, due to heart failure, according to authorities.
His death came just days after his wife, Denise Bucumi, was hospitalized in Nairobi for treatment of coronavirus, as per a medical document seen by AFP.
The foreign ministry of Burundi announced that Ndayishimiye, 52, a former army general and Hutu rebel, will be sworn in on Thursday in a ceremony fast-tracked by Nkurunziza's sudden death.
Ndayishimiye won the May 20 presidential election with 68.7 percent of the vote, and an opposition bid to have the results overturned due to alleged fraud was rejected just days before Nkurunziza's death.
Normally, the speaker of Burundi's parliament would step in as head of state following the death of a president, but the constitutional court ruled that Ndayishimiye should be sworn in immediately, instead of in August as planned.
President Nkurunziza leaves behind a deeply isolated country in political and economic turmoil after his divisive 15-year rule, which sparked protests and a failed coup in 2015, resulting in at least 1,200 deaths and 400,000 people fleeing the country.
United Nations human rights investigators have said that the period since 2015 has been marked by likely crimes against humanity committed by state forces, including extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, disappearances, torture, and sexual violence.
