10 Shocking Assassinations of the 21st Century

#10: King Birendra of Nepal

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Although Nepal’s Shah Dynasty was abolished in 2008, its former King, Birendra of Nepal, didn’t live to see that dissolution. That’s because this tenth Shah ruler was assassinated in 2001 by his own son, Dipendra (di-PEN-druh), in 2001. The incident was known as the Nepalese Royal Massacre, when Birendra, his Queen Aishwarya and seven other members of the royal family were gunned down on June 1st, 2001. There was plenty of confusion in the aftermath of the bloodshed, as Dipendra himself died shortly after the massacre. Questions continued to rise with regards to the conspirators involved, their motives, and even whether or not Dipendra’s fatal wound was self-inflicted.

This former Prime Minister of Lebanon didn’t die while in office, but that doesn’t mean his assassination wasn’t shocking. Rafic Hariri served two, non-consecutive terms as Prime Minister between 1992 and 2004, during which he assisted in bringing to an end the country’s brutal civil war. However, Hariri was assassinated just a few months after his resignation, the victim of a roadside bombing in Beirut. Members of the Shia Islamist militant group Hezbollah were tried for Rafic’s murder. The tragedy triggered on the Cedar Revolution, a series of protests and demonstrations against Hariri’s assassination that ended in the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon on April 27th, 2005.

#8: João Bernardo Vieira

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Military coups are a risky proposition for many reasons, not the least of which is the possibility that the instigators of the coup might themselves become targets. This was the case with João Bernardo Vieira, the former President of Guinea-Bissau (buh-SAO). Vieira took the Presidency without bloodshed in 1980, but the politician wasn’t so lucky when it came to the end of his own term. The President’s dismissal of his military chief of staff was met with violent rebellion and civil war, while accusations of murder, conspiracy and money laundering followed Vieira while he was in temporary exile. After multiple attempts on his life, João Bernardo Vieira was murdered by soldiers on March 2nd, 2009.

The looming threat of violence is unfortunately something that’s always swirled around those in politics. This becomes doubly true when those politicians are serving in tense and chaotic scenarios, with some paying the ultimate price. Tunisian lawyer and politician Chokri Belaïd was fatally wounded by gunfire, right outside his home, on February 6th, 2013. He had been working as secretary general within a secular Tunisian communist group, the Democratic Patriots’ Unified Party, and was the victim of an assassination by radical Islamists. Protests would follow in the wake of Belaïd’s death, with violence between police and protesters even erupting at the man’s funeral two days later.

Déby is another president who took power in a coup, this one in 1990. An authoritarian ruler, whose government was rife with corruption, he faced several coup attempts himself, but survived them all. However, on April 20th 2021, he was shot and wounded while visiting soldiers on the frontlines in a firefight with the rebel group Front for Change and Concord in Chad. He died the following day. His death plunged the country into deeper unrest. As of writing, the country’s constitution is suspended, its National Assembly dissolved and Déby’s Patriotic Salvation Movement holds sway, with Déby’s son, Mahamat (mawha-MAWT), as interim President.

Political leaders can have dangerous enemies - sometimes with deep pockets. Haitian President Jovenel Moïse’s years in office were tumultuous. He faced countrywide protests due to increasing fuel prices. According to The New York Times, before his death, he had been about to expose corruption among Haiti’s politicians and business people. On July 7th, 2021, a team of Colombian mercenaries shot and killed him in his home. They had reportedly been told to retrieve Moïse’s list of the country’s corrupt elite. Moïse’s wife Martine managed to escape with her life, despite suffering multiple gunshot wounds.

The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the summer of 2022 shocked the world. Abe served as Prime Minister for eight years, a record in Japan, from December 2012 to September of 2020. His tenure was controversial, with people divided over his conservative, nationalist policies. On July 8th, 2022, Abe was shot by former member of the Japanese Navy Tetsuya Yamagami. Yamagami said he committed the assassination due to alleged ties between Abe and The Unification Church, a Christian sect based around the teachings of self-proclaimed messiah Sun Myung Moon. Yamagami’s mother had apparently been taken in by the movement, her donations leaving her bankrupt.

Zoran Đinđić was only the Prime Minister of Serbia for two years before he was assassinated in March of 2003. The President of the country’s Democratic Party, he became Prime Minister in 2001 after the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević. Đinđić had Milošević and members of the Special Operations Unit (JSO), who had been charged with war crimes during the Yugoslav Wars, extradited to face justice in The Hague, Netherlands. He also took a hard line towards organized crime - making a lot of enemies in a short time. The JSO mutinied, and on March 12, 2003, a former JSO member fatally shot Đinđić as he was getting out of a vehicle.

Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto made history in 1988 when she became the first woman to head a Democratic government in a Muslim majority county. Her tenure was controversial, due to her secular agenda and allegations of corruption. In 1990, her administration, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan (goo-LAHM iss-HOCK hhhawn) dismissed her administration. After losing the 1997 election, Bhutto went into exile. A decade later, in the lead up to the 2008 elections, she survived a bombing that killed at least 180 people. Two months later however, as a political rally, another assassination attempt took her life, as well as two dozen others. It’s believed that al-Qaeda was behind both attacks.

Muammar Gaddafi ruled as de facto leader of Libya for over 40 years, from 1969 to 2011. His authoritarian leadership was controversial both at home and abroad. During the 2011 Arab Spring protests, the situation degenerated into civil war. After NATO intervened on the side of the rebels, Gaddafi was left on the run. He was eventually captured by a rebel militia. There are different accounts of his death, with the National Transitional Council claiming he was caught in a crossfire. However, videos show him meeting a brutal end at the hands of the rebel militia on 20 October 2011.