Sub Saharan Africa

Burundi
Last reviewed: 15 July 2008

Country information

See entire profile

HISTORY

Burundi existed as an independent Kingdom for several centuries before becoming part of German East Africa in 1899. After WWI it became the Belgian-run territory of ‘Ruanda-Urundi’, with neighbouring Rwanda, under a League of Nations mandate. Following independence in 01 July 1962, Burundi was run by a series of brutal regimes dominated by the minority Tutsi group. Massacres in 1972 killed an estimated 300,000 of which the majority were Hutu. In 1987 Major Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, took control in a bloodless coup and initiated a 5-year transition to democracy.

Burundi's first ever election, held in 1993, was won by a Hutu. Elements of the Tutsi-dominated army assassinated the new President a few months later, triggering the start of a long-running conflict between the army and Hutu rebel groups that cost an estimated 500,000 lives. In 1996 Buyoya again took power but was unable to stop the violence. Under pressure from the region, negotiations between the belligerents began in 1998, and in 2000 a peace agreement was concluded in Arusha, Tanzania. It was signed by all parties except 4 hard-line rebel groups. Violence between these groups and the army continued, despite the institution of a transitional government in 2002, until separate cease-fire agreements were concluded with 3 of them during the second half of 2003. The UN deployed a peacekeeping force in Burundi (ONUB) in June 2004, and successful elections between June and September 2005 ended the transition and installed Pierre Nkurunziza’s CNDD-FDD party in power.

The Parti pour la Liberation Forces (Palipehutu-FNL) rebel group finally entered the peace process in September 2006 after the signature of a ceasefire agreement with the government. Work to implement this agreement has been slow. The Palipehutu-FNL leadership returned to Burundi in May 2008 for peace talks. A cessation of hostilities was signed on 26 May 2008 to end hostilities between the Governemnt of Burundi and the Palipehutu-FNL.

ONUB gradually drew down its peacekeeping troops during 2006, and handed over to an integrated United Nations office (BINUB) in February 2007. BINUB’s mandate has four pillars: peace consolidation; Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration and Security Sector Reform (DDR/SSR); promotion of human rights; and co-ordination of UN agencies and international donors.