Burundi Government unveils Nkurunziza's two months earlier heart attack incidence

Burundi Government has finally confirmed that President Pierre Nkurunziza has died after suffering from a heart attack, two months before he was scheduled to leave the office, according to a news report by Voice of America.

Nkurunziza died at the Karusi Hospital in eastern Burundi late Monday, two days after he reported feeling unwell and was taken to the facility, the government reported in a news release posted Tuesday on social media.

URGENT: Le Gouvernement de la République du Burundi annonce avec une très grande tristesse le décès inopiné de Son Excellence Pierre Nkurunziza, Président de la République du Burundi, survenu à l'Hôpital du Cinquantenaire de Karusi suite à un arrêt cardiaque ce 8 juin 2020. pic.twitter.com/PP46kKzAM5

— Burundi Government (@BurundiGov) June 9, 2020

Nkurunziza's wife, Denise Bucumi Nkurunziza, was airlifted to a hospital in Kenya's capital in late May after contracting COVID-19. She is still recovering in a Nairobi hospital, but her illness triggered rumors that the president had caught the disease as well.

Nkurunziza was sworn in as president in 2005, at the end of Burundi's civil war. He was re-elected in 2010. His decision to run for a controversial third term in 2015 set off a failed coup and violence that left hundreds dead and prompted hundreds of thousands of Burundians to flee the country.

He was due to step down August 20 after his hand-picked successor, General Evariste Ndayishimiye, won the presidential election on May 20.