Major Pierre Buyoya (born 24 November 1949 in Rutovu, Bururi Province) is a Burundian politician who has ruled Burundi twice, from 1987 to 1993 and from 1996 to 2003. With 13 years combined as Head of State, Buyoya is up to now the longest serving Burundian President.

In September 1987, Buyoya led a military coup d'état against the Second Republic of Burundi, led by Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, and installed himself as the first president of the Third Republic. He proclaimed an agenda of liberalization and patching relations between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups, but presided over an oppressive ruling junta consisting primarily of Tutsi. This led to a Hutu uprising in August 1988, which caused approximately 20,000 deaths. After these killings, Buyoya appointed a commission to find a way to mediate the violence.

This commission created a new constitution that Buyoya approved in 1992. This constitution called for a nonethnic government with a president and a parliament. Democratic elections were held in June 1993 and were won by the Hutu Melchior Ndadaye who created a balanced Hutu and Tutsi government. Nevertheless, the army assassinated Ndadaye in October 1993 and Burundi returned to civil war. Nearly 150,000 people were killed as the war raged. There were numerous attempts at government, but even the coalition government under Sylvestre Ntibantunganya was unable to stop the fighting.

Pierre Nkurunziza (born 18 December 1963) is a Burundian politician who has been President of Burundi since 2005. He was the Chairman of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), the ruling party until he was elected the President of the Republic of Burundi.

Nkurunziza was born in 1963 in Burundi's capital city of Bujumbura. He attended primary school in Ngozi province and secondary school in Gitega before graduating from the University of Burundi in 1990. At the university, he majored in physical education and sports.

His father, Eustache Ngabisha, was elected to the Parliament of Burundi in 1965 and later became governor of two provinces before being killed in 1972 during a period of ethnic violence that claimed the lives of over 300,000 Burundians and caused many more to go into exile as refugees.

Nkurunziza was a lecturer at Burundi University when civil war broke out in the country following the assassination of Burundi's first ethnic Hutu democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, in 1993.

Laurent Fabius (French pronunciation: [loʁɑ̃ fabjys]; born 20 August 1946) is a French Socialist politician. He served as Prime Minister from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. He was 37 years old when he was appointed and is, so far, the youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic. He is now Foreign Minister since 16 May 2012.

Fabius was born in Paris, the son of Louise (née Strasburger-Mortimer; 1911–2010) and André Fabius (1908–1984). His parents were Jewish and converted to Catholicism, and Fabius was raised an assimilated Catholic. His secondary education was at the Lycée Janson de Sailly and Lycée Louis-le-Grand. He was a graduate of institutions that are training grounds for academics (École Normale Supérieure), senior civil servants (École Nationale d'Administration) and future leaders (Sciences Po).

After his studies, he became an auditor for the Council of State. Member of the Socialist Party (PS) since 1974, he was first elected to the National Assembly in 1978 for the fourth constituency of Seine Maritime département. He quickly gained entry to the circle of François Mitterrand, the leader of the party.

Alphonse-Marie Kadege was Vice-President of Burundi from 30 April 2003 to 11 November 2004. He is an ethnic Tutsi and a member of the Union for National Progress (UPRONA) Party. On January 15, 2007, he was acquitted on charges of plotting a coup, along with former president Domitien Ndayizeye and three others; two others were sentenced to long prison terms.

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (pronunciation: [tʰaɓɔ mbɛːkʼi]; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki. On 20 September 2008, he announced his resignation after being recalled by the African National Congress's National Executive Committee, following a conclusion by Judge Nicholson of improper interference in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), including the prosecution of Jacob Zuma for corruption. On 12 January 2009, the Supreme Court of Appeal unanimously overturned Judge Nicholson’s judgment but the resignation stood.

Thabo Mbeki was the executive face of government in South Africa from 1994. During his time in office the economy grew at an average rate of 4.5% per annum. Mbeki created employment in the middle sectors of the economy and oversaw a fast growing black middle class with the implementation of BEE. This growth exacerbated the demand for trained professionals strained by emigration due to violent crime, but failed to address unemployment amongst the unskilled bulk of the population. He attracted the bulk of Africa’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and made South Africa the focal point of African growth. He was the architect of NEPAD whose aim is to develop an integrated socio-economic development framework for Africa. He also oversaw the successful building of economic bridges to BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations with the eventual formation of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum to "further political consultation and co-ordination as well as strengthening sectoral co-operation, and economic relations".