Pierre Nkurunziza leaves a legacy of presiding over the erosion of Burundi's once-lauded post-civil war settlement. Opportunity now exists to bring discipline to this security state.
The untimely death of former president Pierre Nkurunziza closes a major chapter in Burundi's history stretching back to the end of the twelve-year civil war in 2005. Burundi's overweening Tutsi-dominated military had proved unable to defeat an insurgency with deep roots in the marginalised, mostly Hutu rural population, and a long, painful stalemate had ended with ethnic quotas for the national assembly, senate and - vitally - the military enshrined in a new constitution. The post-war settlement was heralded - at the time - as a model for peaceful post-conflict power-sharing.
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