Cyprien Ntaryamira
President of Burundi
Died when: 39 years 31 days (469 months)Star Sign: Pisces
Cyprien Ntaryamira (6 March 1955 – 6 April 1994) was a Burundian politician who served as President of Burundi from 5 February 1994 until his death two months later.
A Hutu born in Burundi, Ntaryamira studied there before fleeing to Rwanda to avoid ethnic violence and complete his education.
Active in a Burundian student movement, he cofounded the socialist Burundi Workers' Party and earned an agricultural degree.In 1983 he returned to Burundi and worked agricultural jobs, though he was briefly detained as a political prisoner.
In 1986 he cofounded the Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), and in 1993 FRODEBU won Burundi's general elections.He subsequently became the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry on 10 July, but in October Tutsi soldiers killed the president and other top officials in an attempted coup.
Ntaryamira survived the putsch and in January 1994 the National Assembly elected him to become the President of Burundi.After a prolonged constitutional dispute, he was inaugurated on 5 February, declaring that his top priorities would be restoring peace, promoting human rights, and resettling refugees.
Throughout his tenure he unsuccessfully sought to mitigate ethnic conflict.He was killed on 6 April 1994 when the plane he was travelling in with Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down over Kigali.