Eastern Africa · BDI
Burundi
The story · 8 chapters
How it was drawn
An old highland kingdom that kept slave raiders out, survived German and Belgian rule inside the same borders, separated from Rwanda in 1962, and lived through decades of ethnic violence.
Play the story Take the first lessonThrough the ages
Rivals in history
The kingdoms, empires and states Burundi fought or stood against, from the first to today.
- Kingdom of Rwanda1700 to 1890
The two highland kingdoms, alike in language and customs, raid each other's border provinces for cattle and land in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Akanyaru river becomes the frontier between them, as it still is today.
- Swahili and Arab caravans1860 to 1896
Traders from the Swahili coast and Zanzibar, who build bases along Lake Tanganyika, try to raid Burundi for slaves and ivory. Mwezi Gisabo's warriors keep them out, unlike in many neighbouring lands.
- German Empire1896 to 1903
German officers arrive in the 1890s, and King Mwezi Gisabo refuses to submit. After years of clashes, a German expedition forces him to accept the Treaty of Kiganda in 1903 and German overlordship.
- Kingdom of Belgium1916 to 1962
Belgian troops from the Congo take Burundi in 1916, and Belgium rules it for 46 years. Prince Louis Rwagasore leads the independence party UPRONA to victory in September 1961 and is assassinated weeks later, in October.
Relations collapse after a failed coup in Burundi in 2015. Burundi accuses Rwanda of backing the RED-Tabara rebels, while its troops fight the Rwanda-backed M23 in eastern Congo. Burundi closes the border with Rwanda in January 2024.
Today
Burundi now
Established in the 1600s, the Burundi Kingdom has had borders similar to those of modern Burundi since the 1800s. Burundi’s two major ethnic groups, the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi, share a common language and culture and largely lived in peaceful cohabitation under Tutsi monarchs in pre-colonial Burundi. Regional, class, and clan distinctions contributed to social status in the Burundi Kingdom, yielding a complex class structure.
- Capital
- Gitega
- Government
- presidential republic
- Head of government
- Gervais Ndirakobuca
- Head of state
- Évariste Ndayishimiye
- Languages
- Kirundi, French, English
- Area
- 27,834 km²
Through time
Then and now
- Population13.7 million2023 · 2.3 million in 1950
- Life expectancy63.7 years2023 · 40.9 years in 1950
- GDP per person$7172022 · $595 in 1950
- Living in cities26%2025 · 1% in 1950
- Literacy71%2020
- Political regimeElectoral autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
- Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
- Military spending3.2% of GDP2025
- War deaths0.4 per 100,0002025
Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.
Relations
Close partners and tensions
Close partners
- France
Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 23 October 2026.