Jean Pierre Ruhinguka

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Jean Pierre Ruhinguka was born Pierre Munanira in 1966, in Cibitoke province, North West of the Republic of Burundi. During his lifetime he was considered a prominent leader among the "barundi".

His father, Isaie Ruhinguka, then a medical graduate, fled from Rwanda to Burundi in 1961, after the Hutu revolution. The family moved to the capital Bujumbura in 1968. Jean Pierre Ruhinguka grew up and studied in Bujumbura.

In 1985, he joined the National University of Burundi Faculty of Medicine. The following year he was one of the founding members of Jeunesse Patriotique Rwandaise, which later became a branch of the Rwandese Patriotic Front, based in Kampala-Uganda. Jean Pierre Ruhinguka was among the few Tutsis youth from Burundi who joined the National Resistance Army of Yoweri Museveni in Uganda in late 1987. Later, he was sent back to Burundi for mobilizing the Tutsis youth in that country in preparation for the Liberation war.

In November 1990, he joined the Rwandese Patriotic Army, leading a group of 500 young Tutsis from Burundi, most of them recent graduates and students from the Burundi University.

Jean Pierre Ruhinguka died in December 1990 in uncertain circumstances. A power struggle between different exiled groups may have led to his death.