On 21 October , a coup was attempted in Burundi by a Tutsi βdominated army faction. The coup attempt resulted in assassination of Hutu President Melchior Ndadaye and the deaths of other officials in the constitutional line of presidential succession. Following a long period of military rule by Tutsi army officers, in the early s Burundi underwent a democratic transition.
Ndadaye's tenure was largely peaceful, but during his time in office Burundi was subject to several social and political disruptions. Thousands of Burundian Hutu refugees who had fled previous political violence returned to the country en masse , while the government reconsidered various contracts and economic concessions made by the previous regimes and began reforming the army.
These actions threatened the interest of Tutsi business elites and military officers. In this atmosphere, elements in the army began planning a coup. The exact identity of those who led the plot remains unknown, though Ngeze, Army Chief of Staff Jean Bikomagu , ex-President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza , and Buyoya are widely suspected to have been involved. Early in the morning on 21 October army units took up positions around Bujumbura and mounted an attack on the presidential palace.
After several hours Ndadaye was captured and taken to a military camp where he was murdered. The deaths of Karibwami and Bimazubute eliminated the constitutional line of presidential succession. Other government figures, including Kinigi, survived by fleeing or seeking shelter at the French embassy. Later that day the army formed a crisis committee and presented Ngeze as the new President of Burundi.
The army retaliated by massacring Hutus. The international community and civil society organisations condemned the coup and requested a return to constitutional governance. Faced with these challenges, in the afternoon of 23 October Bikomagu ordered the army to return to its barracks, and two days later Kinigi's government announced the abrogation of all emergency measures declared by the putschists. The coup attempt left Prime Minister Kinigiβthe highest-ranking civilian official to surviveβthe de facto head of state of Burundi.
