Travel Tips Burundi

The geographical position of Burundi in the heart of Africa and its wonderful landscapes are making the country a real paradise which is sometimes called "The SWITZERLAND IN AFRICA." The soft and temperature climate in Burundi as well as the variety of its geographical structure are making the country the best place for holidays and relaxation.

But the relaxation would be more thrilling in Burundi, a country which is very well known for its legendary hospitality, if you can visit the whole of it . Then, you may discover that "Eden Garden," like the explorers of the last century in the very middle of the African continent.

It is necessary to know the kind of harmonious patchwork which is made by the climate as it varies from one region to another. So, the area of the peak Congo Nile, which is covered with the big Kibira forest has got a pleasant heigh climate, soft and temperature. A delicious tropical is found within the region of the Central plateau and the thousands of hills surrounding, as well as the depressions in the Eastern and North-Eastern part of Burundi

1500: Even before the fifteenth century, Burundi was an organized nation, a kingdom with sound political structures and a social organization of its own, since then, the country was ruled by a line of seventeen Kings of four dynasties of Ntare, Mwezi, Mutaga and Mwambutsa.

1890: The German colony was given the official title of “German East African Protectorate (including Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanganyika territory in 1899)

1903: King Mwezi gisabo accepted the German Protectorate by the Treaty of Kiganda

1919: After the 1st world war, Burundi was declared “Occupied territory and placed under the authority of Belgium by the League of Nations

1958: Prince Rwagasore, eldest son of the MWAMI founded the Party of National Unity and Progress (UPRONA)

September 18, 1961: The elections by universal outrage put Prince Louis Rwagasore in Power as Prime Minister

October 13, 1961: Assassination of Prince Louis Rwagasore

July 1st, 1962: Burundi achieved its independence

November 28, 1966: Burundi became a Republic

April 29, 1972: A Hutu revolt, in which many innocent Tutsi were killed, was followed by systematic counter-violence which quickly became a repression aimed at the physical liquidation of educated and semi-educated Hutu.

November 1st, 1976: Colonel Jean Baptiste BAGAZA took power and proclaimed the second Republic.

September 3rd, 1987: Major Pierre BUYOYA took charge with army backing and proclaimed the 3rd Republic.

August 1987: In so-called “Ntega-Marangara events” an outbreak of ethnic conflict in the northern localities of Ntega and Marangara resulted in the killings of several hundred people.

Following the uprising, a military intervention responded to the killings by using force to restore order, to stop the widespread of violence over the country and to limit the outflanking movement.

October 4th, 1988: President BUYOYA charged a national commission with studying the question of National Unity.

February 6, 1991: The Charter of National Unity was ratified in referendum.

March 9, 1992: A new constitution legalizing a plural political system in Burundi was ratified in a national referendum.

June 1st, 1993: Presidential elections won by Sahwanya-Frodebu political party of Melchior NDADAYE.

June 29, 1993: Legislative elections won by Sahwanya-Frodebu (Democratic Front of Burundi).

July 10, 1993: Melchior NDADAYE was sworn in as a Burundi’s first democratically elected President.

October 21, 1993: Assassination of President Melchior NDADAYE. The country went through serious crisis with the beginning of the systematic massacres between Hutu and Tutsi factions. Since then, many people from both sides have died.

January 22, 1994: Inauguration of President Cyprien NTARYAMIRA.

April 6, 1994: President Cyprien NTARYAMIRA was killed in plane crash together with President Juvenal Habyalimana of Rwanda.

November 1st, 1994: The “Convention of Government” (Convention de Gouvernement) signed by 13 political parties on 10th September 1994 put in power President Sylvestre NTIBANTUNGANYA from Frodebu with a Prime Minister from UPRONA.

July 25, 1996: As a result of failure of Convention institutions, Major Pierre BUYOYA took again control in coup d’Etat.

August 28, 2000: The peace initiative undertaken by former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere in March 1996 led to signing of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, with transitional power-sharing arrangement between Pierre BUYOYA’s UPRONA and FRODEBU. The 23 July 2002 Regional Summit named Major Pierre BUYOYA as leader of the first transition government.

April 30, 2003, President Domitien NDAYIZEYE was sworn in as President for the second half of the three-year transitional government inaugurated on 1st November 2001.

October 8, 2003: The transitional Government and the national Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), signed the Pretoria Protocol on Political Defense and Security Power sharing. They reaffirm their commitment to the ceasefire agreement between the parties signed in Arusha on 2nd December 2002 as well as the joint Declaration of Agreement addressing the practical implementation of the December 2002 cease fire Agreement, signed in Pretoria on 27 January 2003.

November 23, 2003: The CNDD-FDD is part of the Executive with four ministries including a Minister of State.

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, therefore, rests primarily on weather conditions and international coffee and tea prices. The Tutsi minority, 14% of the population, dominates the government and the coffee trade at the expense of the Hutu majority, 85% of the population. 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 10 adults has HIV/AIDS. Food, medicine, and electricity remain in short supply. 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.

Unlike real ethnic groups, Burundians have spoken one and the same unique language-Kirundi for a long time. They share the same values and live in the same villages. They all live on agriculture combined with livestock. There is no historical or identity reference which distinguishes them. Nevertheless, the Twa are not well integrated into the social order.

Despite the cultural, territorial and administrative unity of the Burundian people, their recent history has been characterized by tribal wars between communities, the height of which was reached in 1972 and 1993. But, one should not be mistaken because the great majority of the population (all the communities together) continue to live together as before on the same hills, they go to church, school, markets, bars and fetch water from the same springs.

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