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Burundi

Map of Burundi

Republic of Burundi

National name: Republika y'u Burundi

President: Pierre Nkurunziza (2005)

Current government officials

Land area: 9,903 sq mi (25,649 sq km); total area: 10,745 sq mi (27,830 sq km)

Population (2008 est.): 8,691,005 (growth rate: 3.4%); birth rate: 41.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 60.7/1000; life expectancy: 51.7; density per sq km: 338

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Bujumbura, 331,700

Other large city: Gitega, 45,700

Monetary unit: Burundi franc

Languages: Kirundi and French (official), Swahili

Ethnicity/race: Hutu (Bantu) 85%, Tutsi (Hamitic) 14%, Twa (Pygmy) 1%

National Holiday: Independence Day, July 1

Religions: Roman Catholic 62%, indigenous 23%, Islam 10%, Protestant 5%

Literacy rate: 59.3% (2006 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $2.896 billion; per capita $400. Real growth rate: 3.6%. Inflation: 8.4%. Unemployment: n.a. Arable land: 35%. Agriculture: coffee, cotton, tea, corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, bananas, manioc (tapioca); beef, milk, hides. Labor force: 2.99 million (2002); agriculture 93.6%, industry 2.3%, services 4.1% (2002 est.). Industries: light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, soap; assembly of imported components; public works construction; food processing. Natural resources: nickel, uranium, rare earth oxides, peat, cobalt, copper, platinum (not yet exploited), vanadium, arable land, hydropower, niobium, tantalum, gold, tin, tungsten, kaolin, limestone. Exports: $52 million f.o.b. (2005 est.): coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides. Imports: $200 million f.o.b. (2005 est.): capital goods, petroleum products, foodstuffs. Major trading partners: Germany, Belgium, Pakistan, U.S., Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, France, Italy, Uganda, Japan (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 23,900 (2003); mobile cellular: 64,000 (2003). Radio broadcast stations: AM 0, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2001). Television broadcast stations: 1 (2001). Internet hosts: 22 (2003). Internet users: 14,000 (2003).

Transportation: Railways: 0 km. Highways: total: 14,480 km; paved: 1,028 km; unpaved: 13,452 km (1999 est.). Waterways: mainly on Lake Tanganyika (2004). Ports and harbors: Bujumbura. Airports: 8 (2004 est.).

International disputes: Tutsi, Hutu, other conflicting ethnic groups, associated political rebels, armed gangs, and various government forces continue fighting in the Great Lakes region, transcending the boundaries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda in an effort to gain control over populated and natural resource areas; government heads pledge to end conflict, but localized violence continues despite the presence of about 6,000 peacekeepers from the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB) since 2004; although some 150,000 Burundian refugees have been repatriated, as of February 2005, Burundian refugees still reside in camps in western Tanzania as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Major sources and definitions

Geography

Wedged between Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda in east-central Africa, Burundi occupies a high plateau divided by several deep valleys. It is equal in size to Maryland.

Government

Republic.

History

The original inhabitants of Burundi were the Twa, a Pygmy people who now make up only 1% of the population. Today the population is divided between the Hutu (approximately 85%) and the Tutsi, approximately 14%. While the Hutu and Tutsi are considered to be two separate ethnic groups, scholars point out that they speak the same language, have a history of intermarriage, and share many cultural characteristics. Traditionally, the differences between the two groups were occupational rather than ethnic. Agricultural people were considered Hutu, while the cattle-owning elite were identified as Tutsi. In theory, Tutsi were tall and thin, while Hutu were short and square, but in fact it is often impossible to tell one from the other. The 1933 requirement by the Belgians that everyone carry an identity card indicating tribal ethnicity as Tutsi or Hutu increased the distinction. Since independence, the landowning Tutsi aristocracy has dominated Burundi.

Burundi was once part of German East Africa. Belgium won a League of Nations mandate in 1923, and subsequently Burundi, with Rwanda, was transferred to the status of a United Nations trust territory. In 1962, Burundi gained independence and became a kingdom under Mwami Mwambutsa IV, a Tutsi. A Hutu rebellion took place in 1965, leading to brutal Tutsi retaliations. Mwambutsa was deposed by his son, Ntaré V, in 1966. Ntaré in turn was overthrown the same year in a military coup by Premier Michel Micombero, also a Tutsi. In 1970–1971, a civil war erupted, leaving more than 100,000 Hutu dead.

On Nov. 1, 1976, Lt. Col. Jean-Baptiste Bagaza led a coup and assumed the presidency. He suspended the constitution and announced that a 30-member Supreme Revolutionary Council would be the governing body. In Sept. 1987, Bagaza was overthrown by Maj. Pierre Buyoya, who became president. Ethnic hatred again flared in Aug. 1988, and about 20,000 Hutu were slaughtered. Buyoya, however, began reforms to heal the country's ethnic rift. The Burundi Democracy Front's candidate, Melchior Ndadaye, won the country's first democratic presidential elections, held on June 2, 1993. Ndadaye, the first Hutu to assume power in Burundi, was killed within months during a coup. The second Hutu president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was killed on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying him and the Rwandan president was shot down. As a result, Hutu youth gangs began massacring Tutsi; the Tutsi-controlled army retaliated by killing Hutus.

Burundi's Brutal Civil War Nears Its End

The frequency of ethnic clashes increased, developing into a low-intensity civil war. A six-nation regional proposal to send troops into Burundi to maintain peace and order was devised in July 1996. Distrustful of the scheme, the Tutsi-dominated army led a coup deposing the Hutu president and installed Maj. Pierre Buyoya that month. More than 300,000 people have been killed in the civil war since 1993, with the Tutsi-dominated army and the Hutu rebel forces responsible for the slaughter. After several aborted cease-fires, a 2001 peace plan included a power-sharing agreement that has been relatively successful: Buyoya, a Tutsi, governed the new transitional government for the first 18 months; then, in April 2003, a Hutu president, Domitien Ndayizeye, assumed power. In Aug. 2005, former Hutu rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza was elected president by Parliament. The peaceful transfer of power to a democratically elected leader seemed to indicate that Burundi's 12-year civil war was truly at an end. Peace talks between the government and Burundi's only remaining rebel group continued in 2006.

The government and the rebel group Forces for National Liberation, which was the last rebel group to engage in negotiations, signed a cease-fire in May 2008, signaling finality in the 15-year civil war that claimed some 300,000 lives.

See also Encyclopedia: Burundi.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Burundi

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