Burundi: Poor with endemic ethnic violence

In 2019, a UN Commission accused the government in Burundi of human rights abuses, including executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and sexual violence. The state responded by calling the allegations, “lies”. In the same year it banned the BBC from operating in the country. Very few private media organisations are still allowed to function there. Four journalists were sentenced to two and a half years in prison last month on charges of trying to undermine state security. 65% of Burundians live in poverty and half of its 10 million population is food-insecure. Theirs is one the world’s poorest nations. Yet in January this year the country’s parliament voted to pay President Pierre Nkurunziza USD 530,000 and provide him with a luxury villa when he leaves office. The draft law, which is awaiting cabinet approval, also awards him a lifetime salary.

Burundi is a small country in Central-East Africa bordered by Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lake Tanganyika. It gained its independence from Belgium in 1962 as the Kingdom of Burundi but the monarchy was overthrown in 1966. Political violence and non-democratic transfers of power have marked much of its subsequent history. The first democratically elected president was assassinated in October 1993 after only 100 days in office. The internationally brokered Arusha Agreement, signed in 2000, and subsequent ceasefire agreements with armed movements ended the 1993-2005 civil war. 

The country remains in a tentative post-conflict phase. The current crisis revolves around Nkurunziza’s decision to stand for a third term as president, in the 2015 elections which he won. The opposition declared the move unconstitutional. There were months of street protests. Amid reports of the intimidation of judges, the Supreme Court ruled the third term lawful. In 2016 the EU suspended direct financial aid to the Burundian government. In 2017 the International Criminal Court opened a full investigation into alleged crimes against humanity. At least 1,200 people had died in the unrest between 2015 and 2017.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found more than 4,000 mass graves and has identified 142,505 victims. Mass killings took place in 1965, 1969, 1972, 1988 and 1993. The Commission has declared that many more mass graves are yet to be found because people who know about them are afraid to reveal their locations.

Burundi’s main problems are low governmental capacity, corruption, a high poverty rate, poor educational levels, a weak legal system, a poor transportation network and overburdened utilities. It is resource-poor with an underdeveloped manufacturing sector. Agriculture accounts for over 40% of GDP and employs more than 90% of the population. Its primary exports are coffee and tea, which account for more than half of foreign exchange earnings, but these earnings are subject to fluctuations in weather and international coffee and tea prices. It is dependent on aid from bilateral and multilateral donors and foreign exchange earnings from participation in the African Union Mission to Somalia.

Burundi scored only 19 in Transparency International’s Corruptions Perceptions Index 2019 (the latest index), which means it ranks as the 14th most corrupted country in the world. The World Bank ranks it as the 166th hardest country to do business in the world.