Former Rwandan diplomat dies in Burundi

BUJUMBURA, Burundi

A former Rwandan ambassador to France and Belgium has died in his prison cell in Burundi after being detained for over four months over allegations of espionage, prison officials said.

Jacques Bihozagara was also a former minister of youth. He had retired from politics and had become a businessman.

The former diplomat "went by himself to the central prison clinic after feeling ill yesterday," a Mpimba prison official told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity.

"He suddenly died a few minutes later," the official said, adding that it "may have been a heart attack".

Bihozagara was arrested and jailed in Burundi's main Mpimba prison in December 2015. Burundian authorities claimed that he was spying for Rwanda, a claim that he had always denied.

"Saddened by the assassination, in a Burundian prison, of Amb Jacques #Bihozagara, one of my predecessors in Belgium," tweeted Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s ambassador to Brussels.

So far there has been no official reaction from either Burundi or Rwanda.

Burundi’s security and political crisis started last April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he was running for a third term.

Since then Burundian officials have accused Rwanda of trying to destabilize the government in power and supporting its opponents, a claim that Rwanda has always denied.

The worst of the violence in the East African state occurred on Dec. 11 when 87 people were killed in clashes in Bujumbura.

More than 400 people have been killed and at least 230,000 have fled the country to seek refuge in neighboring states within the East African region, mostly in Rwanda, including many journalists and political figures.

The Burundian opposition has repeatedly deplored the "arbitrary arrests" of thousands of its activists by security forces.