Jean-Baptiste Bagaza’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza (1946–2016) was a Burundian soldier and politician who ruled Burundi as President and de facto military dictator from November 1976 to September 1987. Bagaza took power in the bloodless coup d’état of 1976, ousting the former president Michel Micombero who had taken power in the November coup of 1966. Bagaza’s regime was itself overthrown in the bloodless 1987 Burundian coup d’état.

Early life and career

Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was born in Rutovu in Belgian-controlled mandate of Ruanda-Urundi on 29 August 1946. He attended a Roman Catholic school before enlisting in the army. In 1962, he went to Belgium to enroll in a military school before moving back to Burundi in 1971. Upon returning to Burundi, Bagaza became the army’s chief of staff assistant because of his family’s relationship to Burundi’s President Michel Micombero. Bagaza played a part in the 1972 genocide of Hutus, and was promoted to the military’s chief of staff after the genocide.

Presidency

In November 1976, Bagaza overthrew Micombero in a non-violent coup d’état and became the next president of Burundi. In the 1984 presidential election, he was re-elected as Burundi’s president with an almost unanimous vote of 99.6 percent. After the election, Bagaza organized a military operation against the Roman Catholic Church.

In September 1987, while traveling abroad in Quebec, Canada, Bagaza was deposed in a military coup. He was replaced as president by Pierre Buyoya, and went into exile in Uganda. He later went to Libya, where he lived until 1993.

Later life and death

From 1994 until his death, he led the Party for National Recovery (PARENA). He was a Senator for life as a former head of state. In 1997, Bagaza was arrested for gathering weapons for a plot against Buyoya.

Bagaza died in Brussels, Belgium on 4 May 2016 at the age of 69 and was buried in Bujumbura on 17 May 2016.