A United Nations peacekeeper shot in the head during post-election violence in Burundi three weeks ago has died of his wounds.
The South African soldier, shot in the head on 3 June during an attack on a polling station in Burundi's troubled Kabezi district had been initially evacuated to Kenya's capital, Nairobi, for emergency treatment. Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York today that the peacekeeper had died of his wounds in a Pretoria hospital.
Following the early June ballot, the head of the UN Office in Burundi (ONUB) said that the country's first municipal elections in a decade had taken place in a "largely peaceful atmosphere" broken by early incidents of fraud and violence in several districts, including Kabezi.
The incidents forced a 7 June re-vote in Kanyosha, Nyabiraba, Muhuta and Isale in Bujumbura Rural Province and Rugazi and Mpanda in Bubanza Province, ONUB said.