Following a brief visit to Gabon, where a general deposed a president for rigging elections, Burundi’s president Ndayishimiye is having trouble sleeping. He fears he may face the same fate as Ali Bongo, who catastrophically failed to rig elections, ending up deposed and arrested for treason by his own head of security.
The parallel is not lost on the Burundian despot. He now plans to replace key security chiefs in the army, intelligence, and police forces, all of whom secretly oppose his reelection bid. In the Burundian political context, the ruling party CNDD-FDD is effectively an oligarchy of corrupt generals who initially appointed Ndayishimiye to power with the understanding that they would all rule collectively. However, once in office, Ndayishimiye changed course and preferred to rule through his immediate family in a mafia-style organization run by the First Lady.
When Ndayishimiye’s first Prime Minister, General Alain Guillaume Bunyoni, resisted the family rule model, the reaction was swift and brutal. He was arrested, dispossessed of all his properties, and driven mad by horrendous torture for nearly two years. To this day, Bunyoni is unable to speak, hides underneath his bed, and was released in a dismal mental state.
Reverien Ndikuriyo, the CNDD-FDD Secretary General, also tried to openly oppose the Ndayishimiye family’s state capture. He was poisoned and nearly died; he survived and opted for a more subtle strategy. Secretly, Ndikuriyo has been consolidating support among generals who lost influence to members of Ndayishimiye’s family.
Ndayishimiye’s disastrous performance in his first term makes him particularly vulnerable to a coup d’état. The country has no fuel, no foreign currency, a collapsed public transport system, and worsening poverty. The country is experiencing 60% inflation. Nearly all imported goods face nail-biting shortages, yet his family’s wealth has exploded. The consensus within the CNDD-FDD, even by its very low standards, is that Ndayishimiye has failed to govern and has only managed to enrich himself.
As Ndayishimiye mounts the most ridiculous electoral scam in Burundian history, the trip to Gabon was an eye-opener. His failed poisoning attempt against Reverien Ndikuriyo might come back to bite him, especially if the latter secures support from unhappy military oligarchs.
Clearly, 2026 will not be a peaceful year for Ndayishimiye.
ellenkampire