Burundi's former president Pierre Buyoya died, Friday, in Paris due to coronavirus at the age of 71, just weeks after resigning as the African Union's special envoy to Mali and the Sahel.
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Buyoya, was hospitalized in Mali's capital Bamako on Wednesday, a family member told AFP.
"He was evacuated to Paris yesterday afternoon. His plane made a stopover and arrived in France in the evening," the family member said, requesting anonymity.
"He died as the ambulance took him to hospital in Paris for treatment," the source added.
He served as the AU's special envoy to Mali and the Sahel from 2012 until November this year, and was credited with helping push democracy in the small African country but was accused of involvement in his successor's assassination.
He resigned in late November after being sentenced to life imprisonment in Burundi over the 1993 assassination of his successor.
The former president said it was “a political trial conducted in a scandalous manner,” adding that he resigned "in order to have full freedom to defend myself and clear my name.”
The former president was sentenced in absentia over Ndadaye's assassination, along with 20 military officials and civilians, who were also given sentences ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment.
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