Portal:Burundi
Introduction
Burundi (/bəˈrʊndi/ (
listen), /-ˈrʌn-/), officially the Republic of Burundi (Kirundi: Republika y'Uburundi, [buˈɾundi]; French: République du Burundi, [buʁundi] or [byʁyndi]), is a landlocked country amid the African Great Lakes region where East and Central Africa converge. The capital is Gitega, having moved from Bujumbura in February 2019. The southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika.
The Twa, Hutu and Tutsi peoples have lived in Burundi for at least 500 years. For more than 200 of those years, Burundi was an independent kingdom, until the beginning of the 20th century, when Germany colonised the region. After the First World War and Germany's defeat, it ceded the territory to Belgium. Both Germans and Belgians ruled Burundi and Rwanda as a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi. Despite common misconceptions, Burundi and Rwanda had never been under common rule until the time of European colonisation.
Selected general articles
The position of Vice-President of the Republic of Burundi was created in June 1998, when a transitional constitution went into effect. It replaced the post of Prime Minister. Read more...- Communications in Burundi include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, the Internet, and the postal service in Burundi. Read more...
The original national flag of Burundi was adopted after the country's independence from Belgium on 1 July 1962. It went through several revisions and now consists of a white saltire which divides the field into alternating red and green areas. The center of the saltire merges into a white disk, on which there are three red solid six-pointed stars outlined in green. The current ratio is 3:5, which was changed from 2:3 until 27 September 1982. Read more...- In 2007 the Government of Burundi consisted of a 20-member Council of Ministers appointed by the President. The Council of Ministers, together with the President and Vice-Presidents, forms the executive branch of government in the country.
The constitution, which enshrines ethnically-based power-sharing, requires that 60% of ministers come from the ethnic Hutu majority while the remaining 40% come from the ethnic Tutsi minority. At least 30% of government ministers must be women. Read more...
Ruanda-Urundi (French pronunciation: [ʁɥɑ̃da.yʁœ̃di]) was a territory in the African Great Lakes region, once part of German East Africa, which was ruled by Belgium between 1922 and 1962. Occupied by the Belgians during the East African Campaign during World War I, the territory was under Belgian military occupation from 1916 to 1922 and later became a Belgian-controlled Class B Mandate under the League of Nations from 1922 to 1945. After the disestablishment of the League and World War II, Ruanda-Urundi became a Trust Territory of the United Nations, still under Belgian control. In 1962, the mandate became independent as the two separate countries of Rwanda and Burundi. Read more...- Elections in Burundi gives information on election and election results in Burundi.
Burundi elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) has 118 members, elected for a five-year term by proportional representation with a 2% barrier. The Senate (Sénat) has 49 members, elected for a five-year term by electoral colleges of communal councilors. Extra seats in both chambers can be added to ensure that ethnic and gender quotas are met. Burundi has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties and a third party that is electorally successful. Parties are usually based on ethnic background. Read more... - The Judiciary of Burundi is the branch of the Government of the Republic of Burundi which interprets and applies the laws of Burundi to ensure impartial justice under law and to provide a mechanism for dispute resolution. The independence of the judiciary is guaranteed by the constitution.
The judicial system in Burundi is based upon French and German customary law and comprises the Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeal, Constitutional Courts and Tribunals of First Instance. Read more...
Following independence, the World Health Organization (WHO) assisted in the organization of public health services and the training of sanitarians and public health nurses for Burundi. Students from Burundi received medical training at universities in France and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. WHO coordinated all public health programs and helped in campaigns against smallpox, tuberculosis, and malaria.
WHO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and UNICEF also provided aid for nutrition and maternal and child health programs. Following the assassination of the president of Burundi in 1993, widespread violence involving tribal groups uprooted many of Burundi’s people. Approximately 683,000 people fled to neighbouring countries, rural villages, or towns where sanitation is poor. Read more...
German East Africa (German: Deutsch-Ostafrika) (GEA) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, and the mainland part of Tanzania. GEA's area was 994,996 square kilometres (384,170 sq mi), which was nearly three times the area of present-day Germany, and double the area of metropolitan Germany then.
The colony was organised when the German military was asked in the late 1880s to put down a revolt against the activities of the German East Africa Company. It ended with Imperial Germany's defeat in World War I. Ultimately, GEA was divided between Britain, Belgium and Portugal and was reorganised as a mandate of the League of Nations. Read more...
This article lists the Prime Ministers of Burundi since the formation of the post of Prime Minister of Burundi in 1961, to its abolition in 1998.
A total of fourteen people have served as Prime Minister of Burundi (not counting one Acting Prime Minister). Additionally, two persons, Pierre Ngendandumwe and Albin Nyamoya, have served on two non-consecutive occasions. Read more...- The Ruzagayura famine was a major famine which occurred in the Belgian mandate of Ruanda-Urundi (modern-day Rwanda and Burundi) during World War II. It led to a large number of deaths and a huge population migration out of the territory and into the neighboring Belgian Congo and surrounding areas. The famine is considered to have begun in October 1943 and ended in December 1944.
The principal cause of the famine was several prolonged periods of drought in the region in early 1943. However, the problem was exacerbated by attempts of the colonial authorities to send agricultural produce to the Belgian Congo, as part of the Allied war effort, in World War II. Read more...
The National Defence Force (French: Force de defense nationale, or FDN) is the state military organisation responsible for the defence of Burundi.
A general staff (État-Major Général) commands the armed forces, consisting of a joint staff (État-Major inter-armes); a training staff (État-Major de la Formation), and a logistics staff (État-Major de la Logistique). Naval and aviation commands exist, as well as specialised units. Read more...- Since Burundi's independence in 1962, there have been two events called genocides in the country. The 1972 mass killings of Hutus by the Tutsi-dominated army, and the 1993 mass killings of Tutsis by the majority-Hutu populace are both described as genocide in the final report of the International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi presented to the United Nations Security Council in 1996. Read more...
- Communications in Burundi include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, the Internet, and the postal service in Burundi. Read more...
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) persons in Burundi face legal issues not experienced by non-LGBT citizens. Burundi criminalizes same-sex sexual activity by both men and women. Read more...
Kirundi, also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language spoken by 9 million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as in Uganda. It is the official language of Burundi. Kirundi is mutually intelligible with Kinyarwanda, an official language of Rwanda, and the two form part of the wider dialect continuum known as Rwanda-Rundi.
The inhabitants of Rwanda and Burundi belong to several different ethnic groups: Hutu, including Bakiga and other related ethnicities (84%), Tutsi, including Hima (15%) and Twa (1%) (a pygmy people). Kirundi is natively spoken by the Hutu, although the other ethnic groups present in the country such as Tutsi, Twa and Hima among others have adopted the language. Neighbouring dialects of Kirundi are mutually intelligible with Ha, a language spoken in western Tanzania. Read more...- The franc (ISO 4217 code is BIF) is the currency of Burundi. It is nominally subdivided into 100 centimes, although coins have never been issued in centimes since Burundi began issuing its own currency. Only during the period when Burundi used the Belgian Congo franc were centime coins issued. Read more...
- This is a timeline of Burundian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Burundi and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Burundi. See also the list of Kings of Burundi, list of colonial governors of Burundi, and list of Presidents of Burundi. Read more...
Education is compulsory in Burundi for six years, between the ages of 7 and 13. Theoretically, primary education is free at point of use.
Primary education in Burundi spans six grades between the ages of 7 and 13. The next educational tier, known as Lower Secondary, comprises an additional four grades. Upper Secondary includes three further grades. Students sit exams in their penultimate year of primary school known as the Sixth Year Certificate (Certificat de la Sixième) as well as examinations in their tenth year to determine their eligeability for Upper Secondary. Finally, a final examination is set in the final year of Upper Secondary known as the Diploma for the End of Secondary Study (Diplôme de Fin d'Études Secondaires). Read more...
Did you know...
- ... that Burundian Abraham Niyonkuru finished fourth in the 10,000 metres at the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie despite being only 0.03 seconds behind the silver medallist?
- ... that Clotilde Niragira is secretary-general of the truth and reconciliation commission investigating the Burundian genocides?
Need help?
Do you have a question about Burundi that you can't find the answer to?
Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.
Get involved
For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Burundi-related articles, see WikiProject Burundi.
Selected images
Drums from Gitega.
View of the capital city Bujumbura in 2006.
A group of Burundian women rearing goats.
Graphical depiction of Burundi's product exports in 28 colour-coded categories.
Tutsi militia near the Zairian border, 1996
Pierre Nkurunziza, President of Burundi.
Fishermen on Lake Tanganyika.
Flag of the Kingdom of Burundi (1962–1966).
Belligerents of the Second Congo War. Burundi backed the rebels.
Children in Bujumbura, Burundi
Independence Square and monument in Bujumbura.
Football in Burundi.
Carolus Magnus School in Burundi. The school benefits from the campaign "Your Day for Africa" by Aktion Tagwerk.
Bicycles are a popular means of transport in Burundi
Map of Burundi.
.svg)
Subcategories
Recognized content
No results were found.
