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I see ethnicity as a disease that is constantly destroying the very foundation that should be making us strong, that you are a Tutsi doesn’t make you an enemy with the Hutu, the truth is, if you choose to hate your brother because of his tribe,then you are your own problem not your brother.
― Melchior Ndadaye
I do not know for certain the fate of President Ndadaye at this time. What I do know is that, whether alive or dead, no one will stop the democratic process in Burundi. The people have decided to choose freedom. The wheel of history is going forward. I therefore call upon the free world's representatives to rescue the nation of Burundi and its democracy. And I particularly call upon the francophone countries to assist, because at the recent francophone summit attended by President Ndadaye, they highlighted the virtues of democracy. I hope that they will spearhead this process in Burundi. And I call upon all Burundians to fight for democracy wherever they are.
― Minister of Communications Jean‐Marie Ngendahayo
Melchior Ndadaye (March 28, 1953 – October 21, 1993) was the eldest of ten children, seven of whom were still alive on the day of his murder (three brothers and four sisters). He was married to Laurence Nininahazwe, with whom he had three children: Guéva, Tika and Libertas.His tragic death from 14 arrow wounds after having tied the neck with a rope caused a civil war in the country that lasted until 2005 and Burundi was removed from the world soccer team due to these events.
Biography[]
From 1966 to 1972, he attended the École normale de Gitega, which he had to leave in 1972 after the dramatic events that shook his native country after an assassination attempt on the dictator Michel Micombero (deposed in 1976), to take refuge in Rwanda, where he completed his secondary studies in Butare, until 1975, before attending the Faculty of Education Sciences of the National University of Rwanda, still in Butare.
In August 1979, he participated in the founding of the Burundi Workers' Party (UBU), which he abandoned in 1983, after differing opinions on the strategies to adopt to strengthen the democratic movement in Burundi.
In 1986 Melchior Ndadaye was one of the main founding members of the Burundi Front for Democracy (FRODEBU) (Sahwanya-Frodebu), originally an illegal party, formalized in 1991, which he presided until his victory. election in the presidential and legislative elections of June 1 and 29, 1993.
First Secretary of the Burundi Workers Union (UTB) in the province of Gitega, was jailed, for political reasons, from October 28 to December 28, 1988, after his intervention during a meeting called by the Governor of Gitega, on 23 October 1988, on the problems of Ntega and Marangara.Appointed on April 18, 1993, during an extraordinary Congress as his party's candidate for the presidential elections, Melchior Ndadaye will be supported by three other parties: the PP, the RPB and the PL.
On June 1, 1,993, Melchior Ndadaye (FRODEBU) won in the first round, the first presidential election by universal suffrage in the history of Burundi, which obtained 64.79% of the votes, compared to 32.47% in the candidate. of the UPRONA the Union for National Progress, Pierre Buyoya and only 1.44% for the PRP candidate, Pierre-Claver Sendegeya, who came in third place.
Burial of Melchior Ndadaye december 1993
Burundi's first president-elect, Melchior Ndadaye belonged to the Hutu ethnic group, while the country had been dominated by the Tutsi minority. Stripped of their powers, the Tutsis had maintained control of the army. However, Ndadaye appointed a Tutsi, Sylvie Kinigi, as Prime Minister of her government, who took her mission to build unity between the two ethnic groups very seriously, which she considered a priority. She was the first woman to assume the position of Prime Minister in Burundi.
Melchior Ndadaye is assassinated during a bloody coup on the night of October 20 to October 21, 1993. At dawn on this day, the soldiers attack the presidential palace, from which Ndadaye manages to flee. The palace almost destroyed, the persecution of the president ends in the military camp where he managed to take refuge, there he is attacked with 14 arrow wounds. The president installed after the failed coup, Francois Ngeze condemned the crime and asked the country to return to constitutional legality.
During this coup, Pontien Karibwami, President of the National Assembly, Gilles Bimazubute, Vice President of the National Assembly, and Juvénal Ndayikeza, Minister of Territorial Administration and Community Development, were also found dead. This coup will trigger interethnic violence across the country, triggering a civil war, estimated to be between 50,000, 100,000, even 200,000 dead.
Legacy[]
His portrait appears in the 500 franc banknote and in the 10,000 francs he appears with prince Rwagosore.