Burundi (boo-run-dee), republic (10,747 sq mi/27,835 sq km; 1997 estimated population 6,500,000; 2004 estimated population 6,231,221), E central Africa, on Lake Tanganyika (SW); (cap.) Bujumbura; 02°20'S 28°50'E–04°27'S 30°53'E.
Geography
Bordered N by Rwanda, E by Tanzania, and W by Zaïre. Bujumbura and Gitega are the major towns. The country falls into three main geographic regions. The narrow area in the W, which includes the Ruzizi River and Lake Tanganyika, is part of the W branch of the Great Rift Valley and includes some lowland. To the E of this region are mountains, which run N-S and reach an elevation of c.8,800 ft/2,682 m). Farther E is a region of broken plateaus with somewhat lower elevations (c.4,500 ft/1,372 m–6,000 ft/1,829 m), where most of the population lives. Burundi has five ecological regions: the plains (Imbo), the spur (mountains), the dorsal (Nile-Zaïre), the central plateau, and the lowlands of the E and NE.
Population
The inhabitants of Burundi are divided among three ethnic groups: the Hutu (c.85% of the population), who are mostly farmers; the Tutsi (c.14%), who dominate the government and the military and who are predominantly cattle raisers; and the Twa pygmies (c.1%), who engage in hunting and gathering. The Tutsi and the Hutu traditionally have a lord-serf relationship, with the Hutu tending the farmlands and cattle owned by the Tutsi. French and Kirundi (a Bantu language) are both official languages; Swahili, another Bantu language, is also spoken. The majority of Burundians are Christian, mostly Roman Catholic; the rest follow traditional beliefs.
Economy
Burundi’s poor transportation system and its distance from the sea have tended to limit economic growth. The economy is almost entirely agricultural, mostly subsistence farming (beans, cassava, maize, and plantains). Coffee (Burundi’s chief export), cotton, and tea are also cultivated. Large numbers of cattle, goats, and sheep are raised; cattle hides are exported. The country’s limited manufacturing includes basic consumer goods, such as processed food, beverages, clothing, and footwear. Heavy industry is government owned. Burundi relies on international aid for economic development and has incurred a large foreign debt. In 1976, Burundi joined Rwanda and Zaïre to form the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries. Bastnaesite, cassiterite, kaolin, and gold are mined in small quantities. Burundi’s imports usually considerably exceed the value of its exports. The U.S., Belgium, Luxembourg, and the U.K. are the country’s chief trade partners. Most exports are sent by ship to Kigoma (Tanzania) and then by railroad to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) on the Indian Ocean. There is a university in Bujumbura.
History to 1960
The Twa were the original inhabitants of Burundi and were followed (c.1000), and then outnumbered, by the Hutu. Probably in the 15th century, the Tutsi migrated into the area, gained dominance over the Hutu, and established several states. By the 19th century, the country was ruled by the mwami [king]—a Tutsi who controlled the other Tutsi of the region in a vassal relationship. In 1890, Burundi (along with Rwanda) became part of German East Africa, but the Germans actually began to govern the area only in 1897. During World War I, Belgian forces occupied (1916) Burundi, and in 1919 it became part of the Belgian League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi (which in 1946 became a UN trust territory). Under the German and Belgian administrations Christianity was spread, but the traditional social structure of Burundi was not altered, and there was little economic development.
History 1960 to 1980
On July 1, 1962, the country became an independent kingdom ruled by the mwami of Burundi. The mid-1960s were marked by fighting between the Tutsi and Hutu and by struggles for power among the Tutsi. In 1965 a coup attempted by the Hutu failed, and the Tutsi retaliated by executing most Hutu political leaders and many other Hutu. In November 1966, Ntare V, the mwami, was deposed by a military coup, a republic was established, and Michel Micombero, a Tutsi, became its first president; a new constitution was adopted in 1970. Renewed fighting between the Tutsi and Hutu in the early 1970s resulted in the death of many thousands of Hutu. In 1972 a rebellion attempting to return Ntare V to power was crushed by the government; Ntare was executed and the Hutu were further repressed. In the late 1980s, Burundi introduced a number of reforms designed to lessen ethnic divisions, including the appointment of a majority of Hutus to the house of ministers, elevating a Hutu to the office of prime minister, and encouraging enlistment of Hutus in the military.
History 1980 to Present
Many Hutus fled Burundi after massacres in 1988 and settled in Tanzania; but by mid-1989, most of them had returned. Today Hutus continue to have limited educational and economic opportunities. During the 1986–1992 period, Pierre byoya, a Tutsi military commander, was president. In June 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, became president in the country’s first democratic election, but a hoped-for continuation of peace between the Tutsi and the Hutu ended in a military coup attempt on October 21, 1993, resulting in the killing of the president and his constitutional successors by Tutsi military officers. The resultant civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi left tens of thousands dead. Some 700,000 people fled as refugees to neighboring countries (375,000 to Rwanda, 245,000 to Tanzania, 50,000 to former Zaïre) while some 300,000 were displaced internally. The Kigobe Accord and an amendment to the constitution led to a new government when the National Assembly voted Cyprien Ntaryamira, a Hutu, president in February 1994. Some 250,000 refugees returned. On April 6, the same day that a further political agreement was signed by the major political parties (the Kajage Accords), Ntaryamira, two of his ministers, and the president of Rwanda were killed in a plane crash in Rwanda, unleashing a bloodbath in Rwanda. Timely action by Burundian authorities and the UN prevented the immediate spread of the killing to Burundi; however, the civil war initiated in 1993 has dragged on, especially in the S. After prolonged negotiations, a third political agreement, the Convention of Government, was signed (September 1994) by 75% of the political parties, leading to the selection of a new president, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, and the formation of a new government. Large numbers of refugees remain in neighboring countries, while Burundi still hosts thousands of Rwandan refugees. The continuing ethnic and political strife devastated the economy, with a falling GNP and rising inflation. On July 25, 1996, Tutsi Pierre Byoya became president once again in a bloodless military coup and installed a Tutsi-controlled government. The rebellion in the S weakened as hundreds of thousands of rural Hutus were relocated to guarded camps in the N and central regions. The guerrillas lost their rear bases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when the former government of Zaire was overthrown. These forces moved into Tanzania to the UN refugee camps there and continued the civil war by mounting raids into the provinces of Makamba in S Burundi. Peace talks for Burundi have began in 1997 with Tanzanian mediation. A transitional government (2001) was to be a first step toward holding elections in 2004. However, while the Government of Burundi had a cease-fire agreement with three of its four Hutu rebel groups, implementation of the agreement has been an issue and one rebel group refuses to sign on, making prospects for peace problematic.
Government
President Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, the chief of state was sworn in (April 2003) as president for the second half of the three-year transitional government inauguarated in November 2001. Vice President Alphonse Kadege is a Tutsi.
