Body of former Burundian president Buyoya repatriated from Mali

The body of Burundi’s former president Pierre Buyoya (pictured) was repatriated to his home country on Tuesday, more than three years after he was buried thousands of kilometres away in Mali, AFP reported from Nairobi.
Buyoya, who was credited with helping push democracy in the small African nation but accused of involvement in his successor’s assassination, died in Paris in December 2020 after contracting Covid-19. Later that month Buyoya, who died aged 71, was interred in the Malian capital Bamako, his base for eight years as the African Union’s special envoy to Mali and the Sahel.
At the time, a senior Burundian government official had said Buyoya had the right to be buried in his home country but would not be given the honours afforded to a former head of state because of the sentence against him.
A source at the airport in Burundi’s main city Bujumbura said the plane carrying his remains touched down early on Tuesday afternoon. “In order to respect the last wishes of the deceased, the family has requested and obtained from the Burundian authorities permission to repatriate and rebury his remains in his native country,” the Buyoya’s family said in a statement sent to AFP on Monday.