Ruanda-Urundi , former colonial territory, central Africa, now divided between the independent states of Rwanda and Burundi . The original inhabitants of the area were the Twa, a Pygmy people, who around AD 1000 were driven into the forests by the numerically superior Hutu, a Bantu-speaking agricultural people who immigrated from the east. Probably in the 15th cent., the pastoral Tutsi entered the area from the north. Although greatly outnumbered by the Hutu, the Tutsi gained dominance over them and by the 19th cent. had established two centralized states, Rwanda and Burundi. The first Europeans to explore the region were Oskar Baumann (in 1892) and Graf von Götzen (in 1894). Germany had gained rights to the region at the Conference of Berlin (1884-85), but only began to administer (as parts of German East Africa ) Burundi in 1897 and Rwanda in 1907. During World War I, Belgium conquered (1916) the region, and, in 1924, Ruanda-Urundi was formally constituted a mandate of the League of Nations under Belgian rule. In 1946 it became a UN trust territory. Under neither the German nor the Belgian administrations was the social structure of Burundi altered, but in Rwanda the Hutu in 1960-61 gained dominance over the Tutsi. There was little economic development during the colonial period, but missionaries gained many adherents for Christianity. When Ruanda-Urundi achieved independence on July 1, 1962, it was split into two territories, Rwanda and Burundi, and by 1964 all common administrative bodies had been dissolved.

Ruanda-Urundi See BURUNDI.

Burundi A small landlocked country on the east side of Lake Tanganyika in east central Africa. It is bounded to the north by Rwanda, to the east and south by Tanzania and to the west by the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Physical

Burundi straddles the watershed of the Congo and the Nile rivers, while the Ruzizi River in the west flows along the Great Rift Valley.

Economy

Burundi's economy depends heavily on coffee exports, with cotton and tea as subsidiary exports. The biggest sector of employment is subsistence agriculture. There are large unexploited nickel deposits, and uranium, vanadium, and gold. Industry is limited. Since the late 1980s the economy has been disrupted by endemic ethnic violence and an acute refugee problem.

History

Burundi was ruled as a monarchy in the 19th century by Bami (kings) of the Tutsi tribe, who dominated a population of Hutu. Germany annexed it as part of German East Africa in the 1890s and from 1914 it was administered by Belgium, which obtained a League of Nations mandate and ruled it as a part of Ruanda-Urundi. In 1962 it became independent and in 1964 its union with Ruanda (now Rwanda) was dissolved. Burundi became a republic after a coup in 1966, but tribal rivalries and violence obstructed the evolution of central government. There were military coups in 1976 and 1987, and renewed ethnic violence in 1988 that left 5000 Hutu dead. In 1991 a referendum voted to restore the constitution with ‘democracy within the single party’. President Pierre Buyoya (a Tutsi) increased the Hutu membership of his Council of Ministers, but violence continued with many seeking refuge in Zaire and Rwanda. In 1992 a multiparty constitution was adopted. The first Hutu head of state, Melchior Ndadaye, was elected in 1993, along with a Hutu majority in the National Assembly, ending political dominance by the Tutsi. Tutsi army officers staged an unsuccessful coup six days after Ndadaye's election, but in a second coup a few months later killed Ndadaye and many other Hutu politicians. The coup triggered fierce ethnic violence and massacres throughout Burundi and over a million refugees fled their homes, many going to neighbouring countries. Ndadaye's successor, another Hutu, was killed in a plane crash in 1994. Violence and instability continued, with ethnic killings reaching an average of 1,000 a month in 1996. In July of that year a Tutsi-led military coup ousted President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya and installed Pierre Buyoya in his place.