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 Burundi| Facts & Figures |
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Republic of Burundi
President: Pierre Nkurunziza
(2005)
Land area: 9,903 sq mi (25,649 sq km);
total area: 10,745 sq mi (27,830 sq km) Population (2009 est.): 8,988,091
(growth rate: 3.2%); birth rate: 41.4/1000; infant mortality rate:
59.6/1000; life expectancy: 52.0; density per sq km: 338
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Bujumbura, 331,700 Other large city: Gitega,
45,700 Monetary unit: Burundi franc More Facts & Figures |
Republic of Burundi
GeographyWedged 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.
GovernmentRepublic.
HistoryThe 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.
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