Jean-Marie Ngendahayo

Jean‐Marie Ngendahayo (born 1956) is a Burundian politician.

== Early life and education ==

Jean‐Marie Ngendahayo was born in 1956 in Cibitoke Province, Ruanda-Urundi. Ethnically, he is Ganwa, though this category has been subsumed into the Tutsi ethnic group. He attended primary school from 1961 to 1969 and thereafter attended the Holy Spirit Lycée until 1976. That year he enrolled at the University of Burundi, and he graduated from the institution in 1981 with a degree in Roman philology. He later married, having two daughters from his first marriage and a son from his second marriage.

Ngendahayo initially worked as a teacher, but eventually took up a position with the European Economic Community. He then worked for the United Nations Children's Fund's Burundi office and the United Nations Population Fund.

== Political career ==

In the early 1990s Burundi underwent a democratic transition and returned to multi-party politics. In February 1991 Ngendahayo became one of the twelve founding members of the Iteka League, a human rights association. He joined Melchior Ndadaye's political party, the Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU). In Burundi's legislative elections held in June...