Overview
Burundi
Quick Reference
After decades of ethnic violence Burundi faces many years of rebuilding
The west of Burundi lies along the Great Rift Valley, with Lake Tanganyika forming the southern two-thirds of the border. To the east the land rises first to high mountains and then descends across a hilly plateau to the border with Tanzania. Much of this area was originally forested, but most of the land has now been cleared for cultivation. This has resulted in extensive soil erosion.
Burundi's population remains sharply divided between two main ethnic groups. The majority are the Hutu, who are agriculturalists. For centuries they have been dominated by the minority Tutsi, most of whom raise cattle.
In recent decades, there has been a series of Hutu challenges to Tutsi domination, following which the security forces have taken revenge on the Hutu. Waves of killings occurred in 1965, 1969, 1972, 1988, and 1991. In 1993 it was Hutu militias, however, who killed more than 100,000 Tutsi. And from 1994 onwards, a number of Hutu armed opposition groups fought the Tutsi-dominated armed forces. Half a million people, mainly Hutu, fled into Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—and similar numbers, mainly Tutsi, were displaced within Burundi.
Years of civil war largely brought development to a halt. Only around 60% of the population are literate. Schools have frequently been a target of the militias and many teachers and pupils have been killed.
Health standards too are low. Half of the children under five are malnourished and health services have deteriorated as medical staff have been caught up in the fighting.
Around 90% of people live in the rural areas, mostly growing subsistence crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, beans, and maize. Rapid population growth in recent decades has intensified pressure on the land. Even so, the soil is relatively fertile and until the mid-1990s the country was mostly self-sufficient in food. Since then, however, Burundi has become reliant on international food aid. The main cash crops are coffee, tea, and cotton, which are also grown on peasant smallholdings.
Until independence in 1962, Belgium administered Burundi and neighbouring Rwanda as one country. In fact, they have always been fairly distinct territories, naturally divided by rivers, and with their people speaking different languages.
Burundi achieved independence as a monarchy but in 1966 the king was deposed by a Tutsi police commander who declared himself president and the country a republic. The decades that followed saw regular purges, massacres, and reprisals, one of which in 1972 resulted in the death of at least 100,000 Hutu.
Regular purges and massacres
Another coup by another Tutsi in 1974 brought Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza to power. He continued to exert Tutsi dominance but was overthrown in yet another coup by Major Pierre Buyoya. He was a more conciliatory figure and deliberately included Hutu leaders in the government.
In 1993 Burundi had its first free elections. These were won by a new party, the Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (Frodebu). Although ethnically mixed, it had a large Hutu following. A Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, took office with a Tutsi prime minister.
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