Former Burundian President Pierre Buyoya has resigned as the High Representative of the African Union in Mali and the Sahel, according to RFI information.
Convicted of 18 relatives in absence to life imprisonment in Burundi to assassinate his successor and the country’s first democratically elected Hutu president, Melchior NdadayeIn 1993, Pierre Buyoya resigned to devote all his time to his defense. This crime had plunged the country into a terrible civil war that left more than 300,000 dead in a decade.
On the side of the African Union (AU), “the status quo had become unsustainable”, a source told RFI. The former Burundian president took responsibility and presented his resignation from his post as AU High Representative in Mali and the Sahel ten days ago.
Pierre Buyoya officially resigns in order to fully defend his defense, but it is in fact a decision taken by mutual agreement with the Commission on African Union, in order to “avoid embarrassingly” a body “primarily serving the Member States”, according to our source.
A “political trial”
“His resignation was accepted with great gratitude for the excellent work done on behalf of the African Union,” replied a senior Commission official. The former Burundian president is still in Mali. He did not want to speak at the moment, but he is planning a press conference in a few days to explain his decision.
Pierre Buyoya challenges his conviction and condemns what he describes as “political trial conducted in a scandalous manner in violation of all rules of rights ”.
He now plans to leave Mali very soon, where he had been in service for eight years, to go to another country on the African continent, from where he will fight for his “rehabilitation”.
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