Burundi Profile - An Overview

[BBC]

Burundi, one of the world's poorest nations, is emerging from a 12-year, ethnic-based civil war.

•   Full name: Republic of Burundi
•   Population: 8.5 million (UN, 2010)
•   Capital: Bujumbura
•   Area: 27,816 sq km (10,740 sq miles)
•   Major languages: Kirundi (official), French (official), Swahili
•   Major religions: Christianity, indigenous beliefs
•   Life expectancy: 51 years (men), 54 years (women) (UN)
•   Monetary unit: 1 Burundi franc = 100 centimes
•   Main exports: coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides
•   GNI per capita: US $150 (World Bank, 2009)
•   Internet domain: .bi
•   International dialling code: +257

Since independence in 1961, it has been plagued by tension between the dominant Tutsi minority and the Hutu majority.

The ethnic violence sparked off in 1994 made Burundi the scene of one of Africa's most intractable conflicts.

It is now beginning to reap the dividends of a peace process. But it faces the formidable tasks of reviving a shattered economy and of forging national unity.

In 1993 Burundi seemed poised to enter a new era when, in their first democratic elections, Burundians chose their first Hutu head of state, Melchior Ndadaye, and a parliament dominated by the Hutu Front for Democracy in Burundi (Frodebu) party.

But within months Ndadaye had been assassinated, setting the scene for years of Hutu-Tutsi violence in which an estimated 300,000 people, most of them civilians, were killed.

BBC

[afroboy]

Key facts, figures and dates

Attribution: CNN, BBC and IOL Africa.