After resigning from his role in the African Union - AU a month ago to clear his name from accusation of assassinating the first ever democratic ruler in his country, Pierre Buyoya, the army major who had two spells in power for a total of 13 years after overthrowing his predecessors has died at the age of 71.

He died in Paris, France on Thursday due to Covid-19 complications, BBC reported.

It should be recalled that in October 19^th, 2002 the Supreme Court of Burundi accused him of assassinating the country’s first democratically elected President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993. The incident led to the killing of an estimated number of 300,000 people. He was then sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment but he denied the accusation.

The former US Ambassador Robert Krueger in his book From Bloodshed to Hope in Burundi, in 2007 accused Pierre Buyoya of orchestrating the 1993 putsch which led to the murder of President Ndadaye.

In 2008, Pierre Buyoya was appointed by the African Union to lead a peace mission in Chad.

It was last month that he resigned from his role as envoy to the Sahel region under the African Union - AU on grounds that he wanted to devote more time on clearing his name, a thing he was yet to begin.