President Ndadaye Day 2024, 2025 and 2026 in Burundi

In Burundi, 21 October is President Ndadaye Day in remembrance of Melchior Ndadaye, the first president of the country elected by a truly democratic process. He was also the first Burundian president of Hutu descent.

Year	Date	Day	Holiday
2024	21 Oct	Mon	President Ndadaye Day
2025	21 Oct	Tue	President Ndadaye Day
2026	21 Oct	Wed	President Ndadaye Day
2027	21 Oct	Thu	President Ndadaye Day
Please scroll down to end of page for previous years' dates.

The date of the holiday in honour of president Ndadaye is based on his date of death rather than date of birth.

Melchior Ndadaye fled from Burundi to Rwanda in 1972 due to the genocide then going on in his home country. Later, he became a founder of the Burundi Workers Party, but only returned to his homeland four years later in 1983. In 1993, when Burundi finally held a truly democratic election, Ndadaye and his party won and he himself became president of the country.

However, Ndadaye was assassinated in a coup only a few months after taking office. This then led to mass protests and resistance all over Burundi so that the coup attempt ultimately failed. When a new president took office in Ndadaye’s stead, his assassination day was made a solemn national holiday, and the people of Burundi remember him and the need to resist tyranny every 21 October, on President Ndadaye Day, up to the present time.

Previous Years

Year	Date	Day	Holiday
2023	21 Oct	Sat	President Ndadaye Day
2022	21 Oct	Fri	President Ndadaye Day