Outgoing Burundi president Nkurunziza, famed for soccer and violence, dies

FILE PHOTO: Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza talks to the media after casting his ballot at a voting station during the presidential, legislative and communal council elections, under the simmering political violence and the growing threat of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ngozi, Burundi May 20, 2020. REUTERS/Clovis Guy Siboniyo

NAIROBI (Reuters) - President Pierre Nkurunziza, a fitness enthusiast who increasingly relied on religion and repression to rule the impoverished and unstable central African nation of Burundi for 15 years, has died, the government announced on Tuesday.

He leaves behind a nation dotted with the unmarked graves of his political opponents, an economy in tatters and a question mark over whether infighting over his succession could divide the country's powerful generals and security chiefs.