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Travel to Burundi — Unbiased reviews and great deals
from TripAdvisorBurundi
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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 mi: 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: 52% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005
est.): $4.399 billion; per capita $600. Real growth rate:
4.5%. Inflation: 14%. 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
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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. Supposedly
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.
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.
See also Encyclopedia: Burundi.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Burundi
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