The Politics of Burundi takes place in a framework of a transitional presidential representative democratic republic,whereby the President of Burundi is both head of state and head of government,and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament,the Senate and the National Assembly.
Burundi originated in the 16th century as a small kingdom in the African Great Lakes region. After European contact,it was united with the Kingdom of Rwanda,becoming the colony of Ruanda-Urundi - first colonised by Germany and then by Belgium. The colony gained independence in 1962,and split once again into Rwanda and Burundi. It is one of the few countries in Africa to be a direct territorial continuation of a pre-colonial era African state.
Cyprien Ntaryamira was a Burundian politician who served as President of Burundi from 5 February 1994 until his death two months later. A Hutu born in Burundi,Ntaryamira studied there before fleeing to Rwanda to avoid ethnic violence and complete his education. Active in a Burundian student movement,he cofounded the socialist Burundi Workers' Party and earned an agricultural degree. In 1983 he returned to Burundi and worked agricultural jobs,though he was briefly detained as a political prisoner. In 1986 he cofounded the Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU),and in 1993 FRODEBU won Burundi's general elections. He subsequently became the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry on 10 July,but in October Tutsi soldiers killed the president and other top officials in an attempted coup.
Pierre Buyoya was a Burundian army officer and politician who served two terms as President of Burundi in 1987 to 1993 and 1996 to 2003. He was the second-longest serving president in Burundian history.
Sylvestre Ntibantunganya is a Burundian politician. He was President of the National Assembly of Burundi from 23 December 1993 to 30 September 1994,and President of Burundi from 6 April 1994 to 25 July 1996.
Melchior Ndadaye was a Burundian banker and politician. He was the first democratically elected and first Hutu president of Burundi after winning the landmark 1993 election. Though he moved to attempt to smooth the country's bitter ethnic divide,his reforms antagonised soldiers in the Tutsi-dominated army,and he was assassinated amidst a failed military coup in October 1993,after only three months in office. His assassination sparked an array of brutal tit-for-tat massacres between the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups,and ultimately led to the decade-long Burundi Civil War.
Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was a Burundian army officer and politician who ruled Burundi as president and de facto military dictator from November 1976 to September 1987.
The Burundian Civil War was a civil war in Burundi lasting from 1993 to 2005. The civil war was the result of longstanding ethnic divisions between the Hutu and the Tutsi ethnic groups. The conflict began following the first multi-party elections in the country since its independence from Belgium in 1962,and is seen as formally ending with the swearing-in of President Pierre Nkurunziza in August 2005. Children were widely used by both sides in the war. The estimated death toll stands at 300,000.
The Union for National Progress is a nationalist political party in Burundi. It initially emerged as a nationalist united front in opposition to Belgian colonial rule but subsequently became an integral part of the one-party state established by Michel Micombero after 1966. Dominated by members of the Tutsi ethnic group and increasingly intolerant to their Hutu counterparts,UPRONA remained the dominant force in Burundian politics until the latter stages of the Burundian Civil War in 2003. It is currently a minor opposition party.
Pierre Nkurunziza was a Burundian politician who served as the ninth president of Burundi for almost 15 years from August 2005 until his death in June 2020.
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.
Alphonse-Marie Kadege is a Burundian politician. He was Vice-President of Burundi from 30 April 2003 to 11 November 2004. He is an ethnic Tutsi and a member of the Union for National Progress (UPRONA) Party. On January 15,2007,he was acquitted on charges of plotting a coup,along with former president Domitien Ndayizeye and three others;two others were sentenced to long prison terms. On 19 October 2020 the Supreme Court of Burundi sentenced him to prison for involvement in the murder of President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993.
Alice Nzomukunda is a Burundian politician and former Second Vice-President of the country,from 29 August 2005 to 5 September 2006. She is an ethnic Hutu and was a member of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD).
The National Liberation Front is an ethnically Hutu political party in Burundi that was formerly active as militant rebel group before and during the Burundian Civil War.
Alexis Sinduhije is a Burundian journalist and politician. After founding Radio Publique Africaine during the Burundi Civil War,Sinduhije received a CPJ International Press Freedom Award and was named to the Time 100 list of most influential people. In 2007,he left journalism to run for president,but was arrested in 2008 on a charge of "insulting the president," Pierre Nkurunziza,drawing protests on his behalf from the U.S.,U.K.,and Amnesty International. He was found not guilty and released in 2009. The film "Kamenge,Northern Quarters" follows Sinduhije before,during,and after his incarceration.
Burundi,officially the Republic of Burundi,is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and East Africa. It is bordered by Rwanda to the north,Tanzania to the east and southeast,and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west;Lake Tanganyika lies along its southwestern border. The capital cities are Gitega and Bujumbura,the latter being the country's largest city.
The 1996 Burundian coup d'état was a military coup d'état that took place in Burundi on 25 July 1996. In the midst of the Burundi Civil War,former president Pierre Buyoya deposed Hutu President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya. According to Amnesty International,in the weeks following the coup,more than 6,000 people were killed in the country. This was Buyoya's second successful coup,having overthrown Jean-Baptiste Bagaza in 1987.
On 25 April 2015,the ruling political party in Burundi,the National Council for the Defense of Democracy –Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD),announced that the incumbent President of Burundi,Pierre Nkurunziza,would run for a third term in the 2015 presidential election. The announcement sparked protests by those opposed to Nkurunziza seeking a third term in office.
On 21 October 1993,a coup was attempted in Burundi by a Tutsi–dominated army faction. The coup attempt resulted in assassination of Hutu President Melchior Ndadaye and the deaths of other officials in the constitutional line of presidential succession. François Ngeze was presented as the new President of Burundi by the army,but the coup failed under domestic and international pressure,leaving Prime Minister Sylvie Kinigi in charge of the government.
