Burundi's former President Pierre Buyoya has died, according to the head of communications in the president's office, Willy Nyamitwe.

He tweeted that "the death of the former President Pierre Buyoya is confirmed, there is no longer any doubt"'

The AFP quotes family members as saying that the former president died in Paris of Covid-19.

Mr Buyoya, an ethnic Tutsi, was president twice, from 1987 to 1993 and from 1996 to 2003.

He was later involved in the peace process that ended a brutal civil war and led to the election, in 2005, of former Hutu rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza as president.