Burundi: The Lucky Mwami

Premiers do not thrive in Burundi, a small, landlocked central African nation of 2,750,000. In the three years since it gained independence from Belgium, two heads of government have died at the hands of assassins. Last week a third went down in a volley of bullets.

It was before dawn when a band of mutinous gendarmes crept into the capital of Bujumbura (pop. 47,000). While some surprised Prime Minister Leopold Biha in his home and pumped bullets into his head, others attacked the palace of the King, Mwami Mwambutsa IV. The Mwami proved luckier than Biha, managed to...

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