By Georgiana Mugisha-Fitzpatrick
General Evariste Ndayishimiye also known as General NEVA (N=Ndayishimiye, EVA=Evariste) was born 1968 in the province of Gitega the new political capital of Burundi. He holds a bachelor degree in Law.
After the assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993 the first democratically elected president in Burundi history Evariste fled his country in 1995 after narrowly escaped an attempt assassination at the University of Burundi where he was enrolled in a Law program.
That same year, Evariste joined the CNDD rebel group in the Kibira forest in Burundi. In 2000, CNDD split into CNDD and CNDD-FDD. Like the current President of Burundi Pierre Nkuruziza, Evariste joined CNDD-FDD.
In 2003 CNDD-FDD signed the global ceasefire with the government of Burundi in 2003 in Pretoria under Mandela mediation. General Evariste Ndayishimiye was the negotiator in chief of the global ceasefire at that time.
In 2004, CNDDFDD joined Burundi government and Évariste Ndayishimiye was appointed deputy chief of staff of the new National Defense Forces (FDN) with the rank of general.
An ally of Nkurunziza, Evariste Ndayishimiye also heads the department of military affairs in the president’s office and has served as minister of the interior and security.
Between 2016 and 2020, he was secretary-general of the National Council for his part CNDD-FDD, the ruling party in Burundi.
During a congress organized on January 26, 2020 in Gitega, in the center of the country, Cndd-FDD delegates choose Évariste Ndayishimiye as candidate for the presidential election of May 20, 2020. The announcement by the CNDD-FDD party on on January 26, 2020 came at an extraordinary congress attended by President the current President of Burundi Pierre Nkuruziza.
He’s married to Angeline Ndayubaha.
