General Adolphe Nshimirimana, a close aide of Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza, has been killed in an attack on his vehicle in Bujumbura.
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Police and witnesses said General Nshimirimana’s pick-up was hit by two rockets and sprayed with automatic gunfire in the capital on Sunday morning, and he was later confirmed dead, along with his driver.
Nshimirimana, a feared military officer who at different times served as army chief of staff and the country’s intelligence chief, was widely seen as a key member of Nkurunziza’s security team who helped put down an attempted coup in May.
In a Twitter message Mr Nyamitwe said (in French): “I have lost a brother, a companion in the struggle”.
Burundi has been wracked by instability since late April when Nkurunziza announced his intention to seek a third term in office, breaking the two-term limit agreed under a peace deal that ended the civil war in 2005.
Earlier this month the Burundi government said the army had put down a rebellion in the country’s north, killing 31 insurgents and arresting 171 others.
Nshimirimana was seen as the mastermind behind the crackdown on the protests as well as a key player in foiling the coup attempt.
“You can not imagine what General Adolphe represented for us”, the source said. Dozens were killed and about 175,000 people escaped to neighboring countries.
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Sources told the Reuters news agency that the general was killed in the Kamenge district of Bujumbura along with three of his bodyguards.
