Burundi is one of the few countries in Africa, along with its neighbour Rwanda among others (such as
Botswana,
Lesotho, and
Eswatini), to be a direct territorial continuation of a pre-colonial era African state. The early history of Burundi, and especially the role and nature of the country's three dominant ethnic groups, the Twa, Hutu and Tutsi, is highly debated amongst academics.
Kingdom of Burundi The first evidence of the Burundian state dates back to the late
16th century where it emerged on the eastern foothills of the
Rift Valley. Over the following centuries it expanded, annexing smaller neighbours. The Kingdom of Burundi or Urundi, in the Great Lakes region was a polity ruled by a traditional monarch with several princes beneath him; succession struggles were common. The
king, known as the
mwami headed a princely aristocracy (
ganwa) which owned most of the land and required a tribute, or tax, from predominantly Hutu farmers and Tutsi herders. The Kingdom of Burundi was characterised by a hierarchical political authority and
tributary economic exchange. In the mid-18th century, the Tutsi royalty consolidated authority over land, production, and distribution with the development of the
ubugabire—a
patron-client relationship in which the populace received royal protection in exchange for tribute and
land tenure. By this time, the royal court was made up of the Tutsi-Banyaruguru. They had higher social status than other
pastoralists such as the Tutsi-Hima. Lower levels of society consisted generally of Hutu people, with Twa at the bottom. The system had some fluidity, however. Some Hutu people belonged to the
nobility and in this way also had a say in the functioning of the state. The classification of Hutu or Tutsi was not merely based on ethnic criteria alone. Hutu farmers that managed to acquire wealth and livestock were regularly granted the higher social status of Tutsi, some even made it to become close advisors of the
ganwa. On the other hand, there are also reports of Tutsi that lost all their
cattle and subsequently lost their higher status and were called Hutu. Thus, the distinction between Hutu and Tutsi was also a
socio-cultural concept, instead of a purely ethnic one. There were also many reports of
marriages between Hutu and Tutsi people. In general, regional ties and power struggles played a far more determining role in Burundi's politics than ethnicity. The German Empire stationed armed forces in Rwanda and Burundi during the late 1880s. The location of the present-day city of
Gitega served as an administrative centre for the Ruanda-Urundi region. During the
First World War, the
East African Campaign greatly affected the African Great Lakes region. The
Belgian and
British colonial forces of the
allied powers launched a
coordinated attack on the German colony. The German army stationed in Burundi was forced to retreat by the numerical superiority of the Belgian army and by 17 June 1916, Burundi and Rwanda were occupied. The
Force Publique and the British
Lake Force then started a thrust to capture
Tabora, an administrative centre of central German East Africa. After the war, as outlined in the
Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to cede "control" of the Western section of the former German East Africa to Belgium. On 20 October 1924,
Ruanda-Urundi, which consisted of modern-day Rwanda and Burundi, became a Belgian
League of Nations mandate territory, with
Usumbura as its capital. In practical terms it was considered part of the
Belgian colonial empire. Burundi, as part of Ruanda-Urundi, continued its kingship
dynasty despite the presence of European authorities. The Belgians, however, preserved many of the kingdom's institutions; the Burundian monarchy succeeded in surviving into the post-colonial period. In the following months, Burundian political parties began to advocate for the end of Belgian colonial rule and the separation of Rwanda and Burundi. Burundi's first
elections took place on 8 September 1961 and UPRONA, a multi-ethnic unity party led by
Prince Louis Rwagasore won just over 80% of the electorate's votes. In the wake of the elections, on 13 October, the 29-year-old
Prince Rwagasore was assassinated, robbing Burundi of its most popular and well-known nationalist. The country claimed independence on 1 July 1962, Burundi became a
constitutional monarchy with Mwami Mwambutsa IV, Prince Rwagasore's father, serving as the country's king. In 1963, King Mwambutsa appointed a Hutu prime minister,
Pierre Ngendandumwe, but he was assassinated on 15 January 1965 by a Rwandan Tutsi employed by the US Embassy. The assassination occurred in the broader context of the
Congo Crisis during which
Western anti-communist countries were confronting the communist
People's Republic of China as it attempted to make Burundi a logistics base for communist insurgents battling in Congo.
Parliamentary elections in May 1965 brought a majority of Hutu into the parliament, but when King Mwambutsa appointed a Tutsi prime minister, some Hutu felt this was unjust and ethnic tensions were further increased. In October 1965, an attempted
coup d'état led by the Hutu-dominated police was carried out but failed. The Tutsi dominated army, then led by Tutsi officer Captain
Michel Micombero purged Hutu from their ranks and carried out reprisal attacks which ultimately claimed the lives of up to 5,000 people in a precursor to the
1972 Burundian Genocide. King Mwambutsa, who had fled the country during the October coup of 1965, was deposed by a
coup in July 1966 and his teenage son,
Prince Ntare V, claimed the throne. In November that same year, the Tutsi Prime Minister, then-Captain
Michel Micombero, carried out another
coup, this time deposing Ntare, abolishing the monarchy and declaring the nation a
republic, though his one-party government was effectively a
military dictatorship. Since Burundi's independence in 1962, two
genocides have taken place in the country: the 1972 mass killings of Hutus by the Tutsi-dominated army, and the mass killings of Tutsis in 1993 by the Hutu majority. Both were described as genocides in the final report of the International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi presented in 2002 to the
United Nations Security Council. In late April 1972, two events led to the outbreak of the
First Burundian Genocide. On 27 April 1972, a rebellion led by
Hutu members of the
gendarmerie broke out in the lakeside towns of
Rumonge and
Nyanza-Lac and the rebels declared the short-lived
Martyazo Republic. The rebels attacked both Tutsi and any Hutu who refused to join their rebellion. During this initial Hutu outbreak, anywhere from 800 to 1200 people were killed. At the same time, King
Ntare V of Burundi returned from exile, heightening political tension in the country. On 29 April 1972, the 24-year-old Ntare V was murdered. In subsequent months, the Tutsi-dominated government of
Michel Micombero used the army to combat Hutu rebels and commit genocide, murdering targeted members of the Hutu majority. The total number of casualties was never established, but contemporary estimates put the number of people killed between 80,000 and 210,000. In addition, several hundred thousand Hutu were estimated to have fled the killings into
Zaïre,
Rwanda and
Tanzania. Following the civil war and genocide, Micombero became mentally distraught and withdrawn. In 1976, Colonel
Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, a Tutsi, led a
bloodless coup to topple Micombero and set about promoting reform. His administration drafted a new constitution in 1981, which maintained Burundi's status as a
one-party state. In early 1994, the parliament elected
Cyprien Ntaryamira (Hutu) to the office of president. He and
Juvénal Habyarimana, the president of Rwanda, both Hutus, died together
when their airplane was shot down in April 1994. More refugees started fleeing to Rwanda. Speaker of Parliament,
Sylvestre Ntibantunganya (Hutu), was appointed as president in October 1994. A
coalition government involving 12 of the 13 parties was formed. A feared general massacre was averted, but violence broke out. A number of Hutu refugees in Bujumbura, the then-capital, were killed. The mainly Tutsi
Union for National Progress withdrew from the government and parliament. In 1996,
Pierre Buyoya (Tutsi) again took power through a
coup d'état. He suspended the constitution and was sworn in as president in 1998. This was the start of his second term as president, after his first term from 1987 to 1993. In response to rebel attacks, the government forced much of the population to move to
refugee camps. Under Buyoya's rule, long peace talks started, mediated by
South Africa. Both parties signed agreements in
Arusha,
Tanzania and
Pretoria, South Africa, to share power in Burundi. The agreements took four years to plan. . Burundi backed the rebels. On 28 August 2000, a
transitional government for Burundi was planned as a part of the
Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement. The transitional government was placed on a trial basis for five years. After several aborted ceasefires, a 2001 peace plan and power-sharing agreement has been relatively successful. A
ceasefire was signed in 2003 between the Tutsi-controlled Burundian government and the largest Hutu rebel group, CNDD-FDD (National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy). In 2003, FRODEBU leader
Domitien Ndayizeye (Hutu) was elected president. In early 2005, ethnic quotas were formed for determining positions in Burundi's government. Throughout the year, elections for parliament and president occurred.
Pierre Nkurunziza (Hutu), once a leader of a rebel group, was elected president in 2005. , the Burundian government was talking with the Hutu-led
Palipehutu-National Liberation Forces (NLF) to bring peace to the country.
Peace agreements African leaders began a series of peace talks between the warring factions following a request by the United Nations Secretary General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali for them to intervene in the humanitarian crisis. Talks were initiated under the aegis of former Tanzanian President
Julius Nyerere in 1995; following his death, South African President
Nelson Mandela took the helm. As the talks progressed, South African President
Thabo Mbeki and United States President
Bill Clinton also contributed to the accords. The main objective was to transform the structure of both the Burundian government and military to bridge the ethnic gap between the Tutsi and Hutu. A two step approach was formulated. First, a transitional power-sharing government would be established, with the presidents holding office for three year elected terms. The second objective was to restructure the
armed forces with equal representation between both ethnic groups. As the protracted nature of the
peace talks demonstrated, the mediators and negotiating parties confronted several obstacles. First, the Burundian officials perceived the goals as "unrealistic" and viewed the treaty as ambiguous, contradictory and confusing. Officials also believed the treaty would be irrelevant without an accompanying ceasefire. This would require separate and direct talks with the rebel groups. The main Hutu party was sceptical of the offer of a power-sharing government; they alleged that they had been deceived by the Tutsi in past agreements. In 2000, then president
Domitien Ndayizeye signed the treaty, as well as 13 of the 19 warring Hutu and Tutsi factions. Disagreements persisted over which group would preside over the nascent government, and when the ceasefire would begin. The spoilers of the peace talks were the hardliner Tutsi and Hutu groups who refused to sign the accord; as a result, violence intensified. Three years later at a summit of African leaders in
Tanzania, the Burundian president and the main opposition Hutu group signed an accord to end the conflict; the signatory members were granted ministerial posts within the government. However, smaller militant Hutu groups – such as the
Forces for National Liberation – remained active.
UN involvement Between 1993 and 2003, many rounds of peace talks, overseen by regional leaders in
Tanzania,
South Africa and
Uganda, gradually established power-sharing agreements to satisfy the majority of the contending groups. Initially the
South African Protection Support Detachment was deployed to protect Burundian leaders returning from
exile. These forces became part of the
African Union Mission to Burundi, deployed to help oversee the installation of a
transitional government. In June 2004, the UN stepped in and took over peacekeeping responsibilities as a signal of growing international support for the already markedly advanced peace process in Burundi. The mission's mandate, under
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, has been to monitor cease-fire, carry out disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former military personnel, support humanitarian assistance and refugee and IDP return, assist with elections, protect international staff and Burundian civilians, monitor Burundi's troublesome borders, including halting illicit arms flows, and assist in carrying out institutional reforms including those of the Constitution, judiciary, armed forces and police. The mission has been allotted 5,650 military personnel, 120 civilian police and about 1,000 international and local civilian personnel. The mission has been functioning well. It has greatly benefited from the transitional government, which has functioned and is in the process of transitioning to one that will be popularly elected. The main difficulty in the early stages was continued resistance to the peace process by the last Hutu nationalist rebel group. This organisation continued its violent conflict on the outskirts of the capital despite the UN's presence. By June 2005, the group had stopped fighting and its representatives were brought back into the political process. All political parties have accepted a formula for inter-ethnic power-sharing: no political party can gain access to government offices unless it is ethnically integrated. The focus of the UN's mission had been to enshrine the power-sharing arrangements in a popularly voted constitution, so that elections may be held and a new government installed. Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration were done in tandem with elections preparations. In February 2005, the
constitution was approved with over 90% of the popular vote. In May, June and August 2005, three separate elections were also held at the local level for the Parliament and the presidency. While there are still some difficulties with
refugee returns and securing adequate food supplies for the war-weary population, the mission managed to win the trust and confidence of a majority of the formerly warring leaders, as well as the population at large. It was involved with several "quick effect" projects, including rehabilitating and building schools, orphanages, health clinics and rebuilding infrastructure such as water lines. The 2005
constitution formalised a complex power-sharing architecture that has been described as "associational" in its logic, as it aims to provide guarantees of representation for the Tutsi minority without entrenching the ethnic cleavage at the centre of Burundian politics. This institutional design provides an original contribution from Burundian negotiators and constitution makers to institutional options to manage ethnic conflict.
Post-conflict reconstruction Reconstruction efforts in Burundi started to practically take effect after 2006. The UN shut down its peacekeeping mission and re-focused on helping with reconstruction. Toward achieving
economic reconstruction, Rwanda,
D.R.Congo and Burundi relaunched the regional
Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries. In September 2007, rival FLN factions clashed in the capital, killing twenty fighters and causing residents to flee. Rebel raids were reported in other parts of the country. In late 2007 and early 2008, FLN combatants attacked government-protected camps where former combatants were living. The homes of rural residents were also pillaged. The UN has attempted to evaluate the impact of its peace-building initiatives. In the early 2010s, the UN peacekeeping mission in Burundi sought to assess the success of its Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration program by counting the number of arms that had been collected, given the prevalence of arms in the country. However, these evaluations failed to include data from local populations, which are significant in impact evaluations of peace-building initiatives. As of 2012, Burundi was participating in African Union peacekeeping missions, including the
mission to Somalia against Al-Shabaab militants. In 2014, the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established, initially for four years and then extended for another four in 2018.
2015 civil unrest In April 2015 protests broke out after the ruling party announced President
Pierre Nkurunziza would seek a third term in office. Protestors claimed Nkurunziza could not run for a third term in office but the country's constitutional court agreed with Nkurunziza (although some of its members had fled the country at the time of its vote).
An attempted coup d'état on 13 May failed to depose Nkurunziza. He returned to Burundi, began purging his government, and arrested several of the coup leaders. Following the attempted coup, however, protests continued; over 100,000 people had fled the country by 20 May, causing a humanitarian emergency. There are reports of continued and widespread abuses of human rights, including unlawful killings, torture, disappearances, and restrictions on freedom of expression. Despite calls by the
United Nations, the
African Union, the United States, France,
South Africa, Belgium, and various other governments to refrain, the ruling party
held parliamentary elections on 29 June, but these were boycotted by the opposition. On 30 September 2016, the
United Nations Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi through resolution 33/24. Its mandate is to "conduct a thorough investigation into human rights violations and abuses committed in Burundi since April 2015, to identify alleged perpetrators and to formulate recommendations." On 29 September 2017 the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi called on Burundian government to put an end to serious
human rights violations. It further stressed that, "The Burundian government has so far refused to cooperate with the Commission of Inquiry, despite the Commission's repeated requests and initiatives." The violations the Commission documented include
arbitrary arrests and detentions, acts of
torture and cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment,
extrajudicial executions,
enforced disappearances,
rape and other forms of sexual violence." However, much to the surprise of most observers, Nkurunziza later announced that he did not intend to serve another term, paving the way for a new president to be elected in the
2020 general election. On 20 May 2020,
Evariste Ndayishimiye, a candidate who was hand-picked as Nkurunziza's successor by the CNDD-FDD, won the election with 71.45% of the vote. Shortly after, on 9 June 2020, Nkurunziza died of a cardiac arrest, at the age of 55. As per the constitution,
Pascal Nyabenda, the president of the national assembly, led the government until Ndayishimiye's inauguration on 18 June 2020. In November 2022, in challenges to the
COVID-19 pandemic and the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, Burundi's economic growth increased slightly to 3 percent, according to an assessment of the
International Monetary Fund. Currently, Burundi remains as one of the world's poorest countries, based on an estimated
gross national income (GNI) of US$298 per capita. The
fall of Goma in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in January 2025 was the largest escalation of the
conflict in Kivu since 2012 and raised concerns that the Rwandan-backed
M23 rebel campaign could turn into a larger regional war due to the presence of troops from Rwanda and Burundi in the
Kivu provinces. Thousands of soldiers had been deployed to assist the
Congolese army in
South Kivu by Burundi, which has a Hutu-dominated government and previously accused Rwanda of backing a
2015 coup attempt, adding to concern for the potential of a larger regional war. == Government ==