In his last term, the late Pierre Nkurunziza intentionally sabotaged East African Group operations by boycotting summit meetings and withdrawing annual remittances.
Following the failed coup in May 2015, Nkurunziza believed that the rest of the EAC leaders were out to isolate Burundi and dictate how they managed the country.
There have been allegations of targeted killings and persecution of civilians in the country contributing not only to his isolation from other regional leaders, but also to foreign sanctions from the European Union that have devastated the country’s economy.
Nicodemus Minde, a Tanzanian political commentator, said it was Nkurunziza who felt isolated, not necessarily the country or Burundians, because he was bruised by the failed 2015 coup that took place while he was attending an EAC summit in Tanzania.
When Nkurunziza was elected by parliament as part of The Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, 2000, it was a major step toward peace for a country that had experienced 12 years of civil war. The agreement commonly known as the Arusha Accord set out the modalities for the sharing of power between ethnic Hutus, Tutsis, and Twa to ensure that no community was over-represented in government, and that the leadership of the country was to be rotational.
Nevertheless, Nkurunziza started undermining the Arusha Accord after his re-election in 2010, to ensure that his CNDD-FDD stayed in power and controlled other parties.
By February 2014, coalition partners in the mechanism for power sharing that had been in place since 2005 resigned and since then the CNDD-FDD has effectively governed the country alone.
Regionally, he will be remembered as a leader who nearly crippled the EAC operations by boycotting the summit and failing to pay Burundi’s annual contributions based on his personal differences with Rwandan Presidents Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
Nkurunziza made it impossible for the Council of Ministers of the EAC to operate and torpedoed the Summit of Heads of States while at the same time demanding the share of the seats of Burundi in the Community.
For example, in November 2018, Yoweri Museveni, the then Chair of the EAC, was forced to call off the EAC Head of States’ 20th Ordinary Meeting after Burundi boycotted, citing the community’s interference in the country’s internal affairs.
Determined to hold on to power by all means, Nkurunziza defied the EAC, AU and UN and resisted all international pressure resulting in the degradation of the reputation and relationship of Burundi with major donors.
