President Ntaryamira Day is observed in Burundi every April 6 to commemorate the anniversary of President Cyprien Ntaryamira's death in 1994. This public holiday serves as a solemn observance for Burundians to reflect on the tragic events surrounding his assassination, which occurred when the plane he was on was shot down while landing in Kigali, Rwanda. Ntaryamira, born on March 6, 1955, co-founded the Front for Democracy in Burundi, a Hutu progressive political party, which won the first democratic elections in 1993. After the assassination of the then-president Melchior Ndadaye, Ntaryamira assumed the presidency on February 5, 1994, but his term was cut short by his untimely death. The day is marked by remembrance of one of the most significant events in African history, as the deaths of Ntaryamira and Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana ignited the Rwandan Genocide.