Burundi: Former PM Alain Guillaume Bunyoni arrested
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Burundi’s former prime minister Alain Guillaume Bunyoni has been arrested. This was confirmed in a statement by the the Burundian Ministry of Justice. Bunyoni was prime minister from June 2020 to September 2022.
Less than a week before the arrest President Évariste Ndayishimiye alleged that there was a coup plot. President Ndayishimiye said that there was agitation for a “coup d’etat” on the part of those who believe themselves “almighty” and are trying to “sabotage” his action.
The arrest came five days after this speech by the President. The speech did not name individuals that were alleged to be plotting to overthrow the government.
“Alain Guillaume Bunyoni is currently in the hands of the police,” said a statement on Sunday signed by General Prosecutor Sylvestre Nyandwi and shared by the justice ministry. Bunyoni was arrested in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura on Friday.
The statement was not clear on what the charges were or whether the arrest was linked to statements made by the president.
“True number two”
Mr Bunyoni had been removed as prime minister on the 7th of September 2022 in a cabinet reshufle, and he was replaced by Interior Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca. At the time of the reshuffle, President Ndayishimiye said ““Do you think an army general can be threatened by saying they will make a coup? Who is that person? Whoever it is should come and, in the name of God, I will defeat him,”
Mr Bunyoni had long been seen as the regime’s true number two since the political crisis of 2015, when Major General Godefroid Niyombare declared a coup d’état, announcing on radio that “Nkurunziza is dismissed, his government is dismissed too,” while President Nkurunziza was in Tanzania attending an emergency conference about the situation in the country. Former PM Bunyoni was a close ally of former President Pierre Nkurunziza, who died in office in 2020.
Mr Bunyoni is perceived as a leader of the hardliners among an influential military cohort in Burundi’s polity which the President alluded to.
The former PM has been under United States sanctions since 2015 over his alleged role in violating human rights during violence sparked by Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term in office. Bunyoni was the nations security minister during the crisis of 2015.
Burundi became increasingly isolated under the Nkurunziza presidency, with the population of 12 million people remaining one of the world’s poorest. It is the poorest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita according to the World Bank, which estimates that 75% of its twelve million inhabitants live below the poverty line.
