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The civil war in Burundi didn't just rip society apart, it
devastated the economy in an already poor country with income
per person per year dropping from 97.62UK in 1993 to just 51.72UK
in 2003, raising rural poverty from 39.6% to over 70% during the
same period, making Burundi the world's poorest country at that
time. Healthcare provision was similarly destroyed. Even children were forced to participate in the
bloodshed under pain of death. The UN intervened following an
atrocity claimed by the (Hutu) Forces of National Liberation (FNL)
in 1994 when they murdered hundreds of Tutsis in a UN run
refugee camp. Some stability was restored in 1996 when former
president and Tutsi Pierre Buyoya (above) took power in another army
coup. He and the Burundi parliament agreed a transitional
government which saw him sworn in as president on 11th June 1998
and the following week between 15th-21st June the first face to
face peace negotiations took place in Tanzania between the
government, opposition parties and some rebel groups with
Tanzania's former president Julius Nyerere acting as mediator.
However the fighting continued with Amnesty International
reporting the massacre of hundreds over the following months
including a UNICEF official and World Food Program worker while they were assisting in a displacement camp. December 2009 saw Nelson
Mandela take over the role of mediator following Julius Nyerere's
death on 14th October that year from leukaemia and a tentative
peace deal was brokered in August of 2000 that saw a power
sharing agreement between the Hutus and Tutsis, however the FDD
and the National Liberation Forces (FNL) were not signatories to
the accord. Within a fortnight, the FDD was accusing the army of
massacring 850 civilians, however fresh talks in Tanzania were
called to discuss the treaty's implementation as there were many
outstanding problems not least who would actually run the
country during the transitional period. Against a background of
ongoing conflict and calls from all sides for Buyoya to step
down, on 23rd July 2001 an agreement was reached that Buyoya
would remain as president for the first eighteen months of the
transitional government with a Hutu as his deputy followed by a
further eighteen month period with a Hutu as head of state with
a Tutsi as deputy.
This deal was rejected by some Hutu rebel
groups (above) and the fighting intensified with hundreds being killed
and thousands forced to flee their homes however, on 1st November 2001, the transitional government came into
being with the Tutsi holding twelve portfolios including
defence, finance and foreign affairs, whilst the Hutu held
fourteen portfolios including security. The new National
Assembly comprise 60% Hutu and 40% Tutsi. However these
developments failed to stop the bloodshed and, amongst many
other atrocities during this period, a rebel attack on Bujumbura
in July 2003 left 300 dead and 15,000 displaced.
A further peace accord was signed in November 2003 when
President Ndayizeye (who had taken over after Buyoya had stepped
down as per the transitional plan), and FDD leader Pierre
Nkurunziza signed an agreement to end the civil war whilst at a
summit of African leaders with Ndayizeye appointed Minister for
Good Governance and the FDD itself becoming a part of the
country's government. Significantly, however, the FNL remained
opposed to these arrangements and in 2004 killed one hundred and
sixty Tutsi refugees living in a United Nations camp at Gatumba
near the Congo border in Burundi. This incident led to UN to
take a more proactive role in the country when, together with
government forces, they began to disarm rebels.
This marked the beginning of an uneasy peace and the war drew to a
close in 2005, with a new constitution being endorsed in a
referendum on 28th February of that year ushering in a formal end
to Tutsi hold on power. In the parliamentary elections held
later that year in July, the two houses of parliament returned
Hutu majorities with Pierre Nkurunziza, from the Hutu FDD group,
elected as president by the parliament. The FNL finally
officially laid down arms when it signed a peace deal with the
government in September 2006. Despite this there have continued
to be outbreaks of hostilities. For example in 2008, rebel FNL fighters shelled the capital of Burundi, Bujumbura,
killing at least thirty three people.
Civil wars rarely come to an absolute end, with those who
have lost everything harbouring resentment at the victors and
so it has proved in Burundi with an attempted coup in January
2010 and violence both before, during and after the June
presidential election of that year with former rebel leader and FNL candidate
Agathon Rwasa going into hiding. There have been ongoing reports
of the killing by the army of former FNL fighters and political violence has persisted with the UN accusing the current government of serious human rights violations during which about 400,000 people have fled the country and hundreds have been killed.
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Burundian Civil War: Volunteer in Burundi
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Burundian Civil War: Burundi Refugees
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Burundian Civil War: Child Sponsor Burundi
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Burundian Civil War: Burundi Country Profile
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