Burundi

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Burundi

General Information
Geography
Government
Economy
Population
Health
Communications and media
Chronology


GENERAL INFORMATION

National name Republika y'Uburundi/République du Burundi/Republic of Burundi Area 27,834 sq km/10,746 sq mi Capital Bujumbura Language Kirundi, French (both official), Kiswahili Religion Roman Catholic 62%, Pentecostalist 5%, Anglican 1%, Muslim 1%, animist Time difference GMT +2 Major holidays 1 January, 1 May, 1 July, 15 August, 18 September, 1 November, 25 December; variable: Ascension Thursday


GEOGRAPHY

Major towns/cities Gitega, Bururi, Ngozi, Muyinga, Ruyigi, Kayanza Physical features landlocked grassy highland straddling watershed of Nile and Congo; Lake Tanganyika, Great Rift Valley Airports one international airport; total passengers carried: 255,000 (2002 est) Railways none Roads total road network: 14,480 km/8,998 mi, of which 7.1% paved (1999 est); passenger cars: 3.1 per 1,000 people (1998)


GOVERNMENT

Head of state and government Pierre Nkuruziza from 2005 Political system military Political executive military Administrative divisions 15 provinces Political parties Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), left of centre; Union for National Progress (UPRONA), nationalist socialist; Socialist Party of Burundi (PSB); People's Reconciliation Party (PRP) Death penalty retained and used for ordinary crimes Armed forces 50,500; plus paramilitary forces of 31,000 (2006 est) Conscription military service is voluntary Defence spend (% GDP) 6.5 (2004 est) Education spend (% GDP) 3.9 (2003 est) Health spend (% GDP) 0.7 (2004)


ECONOMY

Currency Burundi franc GDP (US$) 800 million (2005 est) Real GDP growth (% change on previous year) 6.1 (2006 est) GNI (US$) 724 million (2005 est) GNI per capita (PPP) (US$) 640 (2005 est) Consumer price inflation 2.5% (2006 est) Unemployment 14% (2000) Labour force 89.9% agriculture, 2.1% industry, 8% services (2003 est) Foreign debt (US$) 1.4 billion (2004 est) Major trading partners Germany, Kenya, the Netherlands, Tanzania, Japan, USA, Italy Resources nickel, gold, tungsten, phosphates, vanadium, uranium, peat, petroleum deposits have been detected Industries textiles, leather, food and agricultural products Exports coffee, tea, glass products, hides and skins. Principal market: Germany 41.8% (2005) Imports machinery and transport equipment, petroleum and petroleum products, consumption goods, cement, malt (and malt flour). Principal source: Kenya 13.2% (2005) Arable land 35.6% (2006 est) Agricultural products coffee, tea, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, beans; cattle rearing


POPULATION

Population 7,834,00 (2006 est) Population growth rate 3.7% (2005–10) Population density (per sq km) 281 (2006 est) Urban population (% of total) 11 (2005 est) Age distribution (% of total population) 0–14 45%, 15–59 51%, 60+ 4% (2005 est) Ethnic groups two main groups: the agriculturalist Hutu, comprising about 85% of the population, and the predominantly pastoralist Tutsi, about 14%. There is a small Pygmy (Twa) minority, comprising about 1% of the population, and a few Europeans and Asians Life expectancy 45 (men); 47 (women) (2005–10) Child mortality rate (under 5, per 1,000 live births) 190 (2004) Education (compulsory years) 6 Literacy rate 58% (men); 44% (women) (2004 est)


HEALTH

Physicians (per 10,000 people) 0.5 (2004 est) Hospital beds (per 1,000 people) 0.7 (2002 est) HIV infection (% of population aged 15–49) 3.3 (2005 est) AIDS deaths 13,000 (2005 est) Access to drinking-water source (% of total population) 90 (urban); 78 (rural) (2002)


COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA

Landline telephones (per 100 people) 0.7 (2005 est) Mobile phone subscribers (per 100 people) 2 (2005 est) Radios (per 1,000 people) 220 (2001 est) TV sets (per 1,000 people) 40 (2004 est) Personal computer users (per 100 people) 0.5 (2005 est) Internet users (per 100 people) 0.4 (2005 est)


CHRONOLOGY

10th century Originally inhabited by the hunter-gatherer Twa Pygmies. Hutu peoples settled in the region and became peasant farmers. 13th century Taken over by Banu Hutus. 15th–17th centuries The majority Hutu community came under the dominance of the cattle-owning Tutsi peoples, immigrants from the east, who became a semi-aristocracy; the minority Tutsis developed a feudalistic political system, organized around a nominal king, with royal princes in control of local areas. 1890 Known as Urundi, the Tutsi kingdom, along with neighbouring Rwanda, came under nominal German control as Ruanda-Urundi. 1916 Occupied by Belgium during World War I. 1923 Belgium was granted a League of Nations mandate to administer Ruanda-Urundi; it was to rule ‘indirectly’ through the Tutsi chiefs. 1962 Burundi was separated from Ruanda-Urundi, and given independence as a monarchy under Tutsi King Mwambutsa IV. 1965 King refused to appoint Hutu prime minister after elections in which Hutu candidates were victorious; attempted coup by Hutus brutally suppressed. 1966 King deposed by teenage son Charles who became Ntare V; in turn deposed by Tutsi prime minister Col Michel Micombero, who declared Burundi a republic; Tutsi-dominated Union for National Progress (UPRONA) declared sole legal political party. 1972 Ntare V killed, allegedly by Hutus, provoking massacre of 150,000 Hutus by Tutsi soldiers; 100,000 Hutus fled to Tanzania. 1976 Army coup deposed Micombero and appointed Tutsi Col Jean-Baptiste Bagaza as president; drive against corruption and programme of land reforms and economic development launched. 1987 Bagaza deposed in coup by Tutsi Major Pierre Buyoya. 1988 24,000 Hutus killed by Tutsis and 60,000 fled to Rwanda. 1992 New multiparty constitution adopted following referendum. 1993 Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, elected president in first-ever democratic contest, but killed in coup by Tutsi-dominated army; 100,000 people died in massacres that followed. 1994 Cyprien Ntaryamira, a Hutu, became president but killed in air crash along with Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana; eruption of ethnic violence; 750,000 Hutus fled to Rwanda. Hutu Sylvestre Ntibantunganya became head of state, serving with a Tutsi prime minister, as part of four-year power-sharing agreement. 1996 Former Tutsi president Pierre Buyoya seized power, provoking economic sanctions by other African countries; national unity government appointed, with Pascal-Firmin Ndimira as premier. 1998 Renewed fighting between Tutsi-led army and Hutu rebels before ceasefire agreed; position of head of government abolished, with President Buyoya assuming its authority. 2000 Civil war worsened; former South African president Nelson Mandela brokered power-sharing agreement between government, opposition, and rebel leaders; three Tutsi parties declined to sign and war continued. 2001 Agreement to install three-year transitional government, with Buyoya as president and Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, as vice-president (their roles reversing after 18 months. 2003 Ndayizeye took over as president and first state leader from Hutu majority in seven years; signed agreement with main Hutu rebel movement (CNDD-FDD led by Pierre Nkurunziza) to end civil war. 2004 United Nations peacekeepers deployed as soldiers and rebels disarmed and demobilized. 2005 Power-sharing constitution approved in referendum; CNDD-FDD won parliamentary elections and Nkurunziza elected president by members of parliament. 2006 Opposition figures, including former president Ndayizeye, arrested over alleged coup plot (although Ndayizeye later acquitted by Supreme Court); last active rebel group signed ceasefire agreement. 2007 UN completed peacekeeping mandate.


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