Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza, aged 55, has died of a heart attack, the government says. A government statement says that he was admitted to hospital on Saturday after feeling unwell. His condition then improved but on Monday he had a cardiac arrest and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

In May 2015, Africa Confidential reported that President Nkurunziza had difficulty concentrating for long periods, and believed that he was chosen by God to rule Burundi. In the national press, his mental health was publicly questioned. Nkurunziza was also accused of extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and sexual violence in Burundi since April 2015 by the Imbonerakure.

President Nkurunziza has led the country since he was elected into office in 2005. Before his election, he was the Chairman of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD). Nkurunziza enjoyed playing football and cycling. He began playing football at the age of five, and played in a team at secondary school and his university.

As a University Physical Education teacher, Nkurunziza used his football talents as a coach of “Union Sporting”, a first division club side. As President, he re-called some of his former players to form a new team of veterans, “Helleluia FC”. In 2004, when he was a State Minister, Nkurunziza created a “Soccer Academy” which is home to nearly 300 kids learning skills in various training centres across the country. Nkurunziza had his own football team, Haleluya FC, which he traveled around the country with.

More soon