Burundi

=Burundi=



Flag of Burundi
The green symbolizes hope, white symbolizes purity, and the red symbolizes the struggle for independence. The three stars in the center symbolize the three ethnic groups of Burundi: Hutu, the Twa and the Tutsi. The three stars in the center also stand for the national motto: unity, work and progress.

Country Report

 * Background:** Burundi's first democratically elected president was assassinated in October 1993 after only 100 days in office, triggering widespread ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi factions. More than 200,000 Burundians perished during the conflict that spanned almost a dozen years. Hundreds of thousands of Burundians were internally displaced or became refugees in neighboring countries. An internationally brokered power-sharing agreement between the Tutsi-dominated government and the Hutu rebels in 2003 paved the way for a transition process that led to an integrated defense force, established a new constitution in 2005, and elected a majority Hutu government in 2005. The new government, led by President Pierre NKURUNZIZA, signed a South African brokered ceasefire with the country's last rebel group in September of 2006 but still faces many challenges.

country comparison to the world: 153 land: 25,680 sq km water: 2,150 sq km country comparison to the world: 227 permanent crops: 13.12% other: 51.31% (2005) male: 8 years female: 7 years (2006) country comparison to the world: 38 male: 66.32 deaths/1,000 live births female: 52.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.) country comparison to the world: 202 male: 51.2 years female: 53.01 years (2009 est.) total population: 59.3% male: 67.3% female: 52.2% (2000 est.)
 * Location:** Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo
 * Area:** total: 27,830 sq km
 * Borders:** Democratic Republic of the Congo 233 km, Rwanda 290 km, Tanzania 451 km
 * Climate:** equatorial; high plateau with considerable altitude variation (772 m to 2,670 m above sea level); average annual temperature varies with altitude from 23 to 17 degrees centigrade but is generally moderate as the average altitude is about 1,700 m; average annual rainfall is about 150 cm; two wet seasons (February to May and September to November), and two dry seasons (June to August and December to January)
 * Ethnic groups:** Hutu (Bantu) 85%, Tutsi (Hamitic) 14%, Twa (Pygmy) 1%, Europeans 3,000, South Asians 2,000
 * Government type:** Republic
 * Suffrage:** 18 years of age; universal (adult)
 * GPD per capita:** $400 (2008 est.)
 * Agriculture products:** coffee, cotton, tea, corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, bananas, manioc (tapioca); meat, milk, hides
 * Imports (commodities):** capital goods, petroleum products, foodstuffs
 * Religion:** Christian 67% (Roman Catholic 62%, Protestant 5%), indigenous beliefs 23%, Muslim 10%
 * Terrain:** hilly and mountainous, dropping to a plateau in east, some plains
 * Natural Resources:** nickel, uranium, rare earth oxides, peat, cobalt, copper, platinum, vanadium, arable land, hydropower, niobium, tantalum, gold, tin, tungsten, kaolin, limestone
 * Land use:** arable land: 35.57%[[image:burundi_2005.1163942880.img_4324.jpg align="right"]]
 * Natural hazards:** flooding; landslides; drought
 * Environmental issues:** soil erosion as a result of overgrazing and the expansion of agriculture into marginal lands; deforestation (little forested land remains because of uncontrolled cutting of trees for fuel); habitat loss threatens wildlife populations
 * Languages:** Kirundi (official), French (official), Swahili (along Lake Tanganyika and in the Bujumbura area)
 * Capital:** Bujumbura
 * Leader:** President Pierre NKURUNZIZA
 * Military expenditures:** 5.9% of GDP (2006 est.)
 * Industries:** light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, soap; assembly of imported components; public works construction; food processing
 * Currency/Exchange Rate:** Burundi francs (BIF) per US dollar - 1,198 (2008 est.), 1,065 (2007), 1,030 (2006), 1,138 (2005), 1,100.91 (2004)
 * Education:** total: 7 years
 * Population:** 8,988,091
 * Population growth rate:** 3.279% (2009 est.)
 * Net migration rate:** 4.04 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
 * Infant mortality rate:** total: 59.64 deaths/1,000 live births
 * Life expectancy:** total population: 52.09 years
 * Literacy:** definition: age 15 and over can read and write
 * Independence:** 1 July 1962 (from UN trusteeship under Belgian administration)
 * Economic Overview:** Burundi is a landlocked, resource-poor country with an underdeveloped manufacturing sector. The economy is predominantly agricultural with more than 90% of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends on coffee and tea exports, which account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings. The ability to pay for imports rests primarily on weather conditions and international coffee and tea prices. The Tutsi minority, 14% of the population, dominates the coffee trade. An ethnic-based war that lasted for over a decade resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, forced more than 48,000 refugees into Tanzania, and displaced 140,000 others internally. Only one in two children go to school, and approximately one in 15 adults has HIV/AIDS. Food, medicine, and electricity remain in short supply. Burundi's GDP grew around 4% annually in 2006-08. Political stability and the end of the civil war have improved aid flows and economic activity has increased, but underlying weaknesses - a high poverty rate, poor education rates, a weak legal system, and low administrative capacity - risk undermining planned economic reforms. Burundi will continue to remain heavily dependent on aid from bilateral and multilateral donors; the delay of funds after a corruption scandal cut off bilateral aid in 2007 reduced government's revenues and its ability to pay salaries.
 * Unemployment:** N/A
 * Exports (commodities):** coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides
 * Illicit Drugs:** N/A
 * Internet Access:** 60,000 Users (2006)

Tourist Information
Burundi is geographically at the heart of Africa but, sadly, has also been at the heart of African horrors in recent years. Here is a country of wonderful landscapes, from mountaintops to forests, huge lakes to tropical plateau. Yet this topographical patchwork mirrors Burundi’s cultural patchwork, one which has interwoven both Hutu and Tutsi tribal strands, often with violent consequences.



Burundi’s situation is improving. President Nkurunziza, democratically elected in 2005, is engaged in peace talks and has announced applauded measures, such as that of introducing free education. However, there is still a danger of indiscriminate attacks from rebel groups in Burundi. Until these incidents are fully quashed, many will miss out on seeing the beauty of Burundi for themselves.

Timeline

 * 1901 Feb 23** - Britain and Germany agreed on a boundary between German East Africa [later Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi] and Nyasaland [later Malawi].
 * 1923** - The kingdoms of Ruanda and Urundi, a part of German East Africa, were conquered by British and Belgian troops during WWI, and became a Belgian mandate in 1923.
 * 1962** - Burundi gained independence from Belgium. The United Nations trust territory of Ruanda-Urundi in east-central Africa was divided into the independent nations of Rwanda and Burundi.
 * 1993** - Pierre Buyoya paved the way for Burundi elections and handed the presidency to Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, elected by the Hutu majority.
 * 1994 Apr 6** - The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed on a return trip from Tanzania in a mysterious plane crash near Kigali, Rwanda; widespread violence erupted in Rwanda over claims the plane had been shot down: Agatha Uwilingiyimana, Rwanda’s and Africa’s 1st female PM, Cyprian Niayamira (Ntaryamira), president of Burundi (1993-94) and Juvenal Habyarimana, president of Rwanda (1973) were killed. In Rwanda the Interhamwe, an extremist organization, and the Rwandan armed forces, FAR, launched a massacre of Tutsis and sympathizers that killed some 800,000. [see Aug 1, 1997] A French report in 2004 concluded that Paul Kagame, Tutsi rebel leader, was behind the crash.
 * 1996 July 25** - In Burundi the military seized power and named former president Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, as president. Hutu officials sought refuge in foreign embassies. Burundian Hutus fled to Zaire's South Kivu province, base of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy, an extremist Burundi Hutu movement backed by Zaire.
 * 1996 July 27** - In Burundi a Tutsi-led army killed at least 30 Hutu rebels in retaliation for an attack on a coffee plantation. Independent sources said that Hutus set fire to the factory and rice plantation in Giheta to justify a retaliatory attack on villages where Hutu rebels were thought to have taken refugees. Villagers said Tutsi soldiers massacred about 1,000 Hutus as they roamed from village to village in Gitega province.
 * 1996 Aug 27** - The last Rwandan refugee camp in Burundi closed.
 * 2002 Nov 2** - In Burundi at least 15,000 people have fled their homes as fighting between the army and rebels escalated despite peace talks.
 * 2008 Jul 16** - The United States signed a pair of agreements to boost trade and investment ties with countries in southern and eastern Africa. These included the Trade, Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement with the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU), which includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland; and the Trade Investment and Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the East African Community, which includes Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Current Event
Drought has caused massive food shortages in the small nation of Burundi. They lost their one crop that was drought resistant, the cassava plant, to disease. There is effort now to find new drought resistant crops as well as aid because the rainy season is over a year late. A million people are hurting for food and it is estimated 50 million bucks is needed for their survival. these people are having to cross the border into Rwanda looking for work. They work the fields for less than 50cents a day. they call this gupagasa. This is just one more example of once predictable weather patterns causing famine in Africa. This is why through the ages of these peoples' histories they have been fairly nomadic in this area, or at least migratory. Now because outsiders have imposed borders, they are trapped in a dying country and not welcome in the surrounding countries, because they are hurting as well. The natural ebb and flow is gone. The balance these people once found with their land has been overcome by institutions formerly unknown to them that essentially do not work for them. It appears that Africa's governments are failing where their tribes once succeeded.