Timeline Burundi
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A former Belgian colony with 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi people and 1% Twa.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A17)
1890 A conference in Brussels gave Rwanda and Burundi to the German Empire as colonial spheres of interest in exchange for renouncing all claims on Uganda.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rwanda)
1901 Feb 23, Britain and Germany agreed on a boundary between German East Africa [later Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi] and Nyasaland [later Malawi].
(HN, 2/23/98)(WUD, 1994, p.593,990)
1913 The MV Liemba, a 220-foot steamer, began its life in a shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, where it was named the Graf von Goetzen after German East Africa's former governor. It was dismantled, packed into 5,000 numbered crates, and shipped to Dar es Salaam and then taken by railway and porter to the shore of Lake Tanganyika where it was reassembled in 1915, armed with cannon, and put to work defending the waters against Belgian and British soldiers. It was scuttled and then dredged up by the Belgians but sank in a storm soon after. In 1921 Churchill ordered it recovered. In 1924 it was fished up and renamed MV Liemba, after the local name for the lake. It was put into service as a cargo and passenger ferry in 1927. It later inspired C.S. Forester’s novel "The African Queen" (1935).
(AFP, 5/12/15)(Econ, 2/4/17, p.39)
1923 The kingdoms of Ruanda and Urundi, a part of German East Africa, were conquered by British and Belgian troops during WWI, and became a Belgian mandate in 1923.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A12)(HNQ, 11/4/99)
1962 Jul 1, Burundi gained independence from Belgium. The UN trust territory of Ruanda-Urundi in east-central Africa was divided into the independent nations of Rwanda and Burundi.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A12)(http://africanscoutjamboree.org/en/history-of-burundi)
1972 The Tutsi-led government in Burundi killed some 100,000 Hutus.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A14)(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1977 The East African Community (EAC), founded in 1967, collapsed. In 2000 the regional club was resurrected with six members: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Community)(Econ, 6/11/16, p.51)
1987-1993 Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi paratrooper, became the military president of Burundi.
(SFC, 8/26/96, p.A4)
1993 Jun, Melchior Ndadaye was elected president in the first democratic election in Burundi.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)
1993 Oct 21, Burundi’s first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, was assassinated by Tutsi soldiers. 5 soldiers were sentenced to death for the murder in 1999. The military coup caused 525,000 Hutu's to flee. Civil war followed and over the next dozen years some 300,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E5)(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A12)(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi_presidential_election,_1993)(Econ, 4/16/11, p.65)
1993 Pierre Buyoya paved the way for Burundi elections and handed the presidency to Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, elected by the Hutu majority.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A9)
1994 Apr 6, The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed on a return trip from Tanzania in a mysterious plane crash near Kigali, Rwanda; widespread violence erupted in Rwanda over claims the plane had been shot down: Agatha Uwilingiyimana, Rwanda’s and Africa’s 1st female PM, Cyprian Niayamira (Ntaryamira), president of Burundi (1993-94) and Juvenal Habyarimana, president of Rwanda (1973) were killed along with the French aircrew. In Rwanda the Interhamwe, an extremist organization, and the Rwandan armed forces, FAR, launched a massacre of Tutsis and sympathizers that killed some 800,000. [see Aug 1, 1997] A French report in 2004 concluded that Paul Kagame, Tutsi rebel leader, was behind the crash. In 2010 a Rwandan government-commissioned inquiry said Rwandan Hutu soldiers shot down the Hutu president's plane and sparked the slaughter of more than 500,000 people. In 2012 a French judge determined that the missile fire that brought down the plane and sparked the Rwanda genocide came from a military camp, and not Tutsi rebels. This finding supported the theory that Habyarimana was killed by extremist members of his own ethnic Hutu camp.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)(AP, 4/6/99)(SFC, 2/11/04, p.A8)(AP, 1/12/10)(AFP, 1/11/12)
1994 Pres. Sylvestre Ntibantunganya took office in Burundi.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A17)
1994 Seven Rwandan refugee camps were created in Burundi and held some 250,000 people.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)
1995 Feb, Prime Minister Antoine Nduwayo took office in Burundi.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A17)
1996 Jan, The Burundi president warned that the country may be on the brink of a possible collapse due to fighting between the ethnic fanatics in the Hutu majority and the Tutsi-dominated army.
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-1)
1996 Jan, Tutsi militants closed down the Burundi capital in a general strike. They accused the president of backing massacres by Hutus after the killing of a predecessor in 1993.
(WSJ, 1/17/96, p.A-1)
1996 Apr, The Red Cross said more than 55,000 people have been driven from their homes by ethnic fighting that intensified last month. More than 100,000 have been killed since 1993 in the conflict between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis. The fighting occurred in the capital city of Bujumbura. 235 civilians died when the Burundi army attacked villages at Buhoro.
(WSJ, 4/5/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-8)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.C-12)
1996 May 3, A handwritten account reached the Burundi capital that described the massacre of 375 people at the Kivyuka village market by government soldiers angry over recent rebel attacks on local power line towers. An army spokesman denied the charges.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 16, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, the Burundi’s Hutu president, has called his army “paralyzed and useless" and given it a week to stop ethnic violence between Tutsi armed forces and Hutu rebels.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 30, Suspected Hutu rebels of the Council for the Defense of Democracy killed at least 61 and wounded 25 Tutsis in eastern Burundi.
(SFC, 5/31/96, A16)
1996 Jun 4, In Burundi 3 Swiss Red Cross workers were ambushed and killed while delivering supplies near the village of Mugina. The Tutsi-dominated Uprona Party denied any role and said the killings were the work of gangs of the Coalition for the Defense of Democracy, the main Hutu rebel group.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C16)(SFC, 6/6/96, p.C3)
1996 Jun 13, A Burundi army report claimed that 50 Hutu rebels were killed in an attack on a training camp.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A16)
1996 Jul 4, Unidentified gunmen killed 80 people in an attack on a tea factory 15 miles northeast of Bujumbura, Burundi.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 21, In Burundi Hutu rebels killed 320 Tutsis, mostly women and children, at a refugee camp 45 miles north of the capital.
(WSJ, 7/22/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 25, In Burundi the military seized power and named former president Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, as president. Hutu officials sought refuge in foreign embassies. Burundian Hutus fled to Zaire's South Kivu province, base of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy, an extremist Burundi Hutu movement backed by Zaire.
(WSJ, 7/26/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)
1996 Jul 26, UN sources said that 268 Hutu civilians were killed in Burundi’s Gitega province. The Tutsi army said Hutu rebels attacked a coffee factory in Giheta.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A8)
1996 Jul 27, In Burundi a Tutsi-led army killed at least 30 Hutu rebels in retaliation for an attack on a coffee plantation. Independent sources said that Hutus set fire to the factory and rice plantation in Giheta to justify a retaliatory attack on villages where Hutu rebels were thought to have taken refugees. Villagers said Tutsi soldiers massacred about 1,000 Hutus as they roamed from village to village in Gitega province.
(WSJ, 7/30/96, p.A1)(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 13, The last 2 commercial flights left Burundi as the outside world tightened sanctions to punish the new military regime.
(SFC, 8/14/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 20, In Burundi Pierre Buyoya sacked his army chief, Jean Bikomagu, who was implicated in the 1993 assassination of the first Hutu president Melchior Ndadaye. He also fired 2 more powerful military officers.
(WSJ, 8/21/96, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A9)(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E5)
1996 Aug 27, The last Rwandan refugee camp in Burundi closed.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug, After the Burundi coup of Jul 25, former Tanzanian Pres. Julius Nyerere led East African leaders to impose sanctions on Burundi and force Buyoya to restore democratic rule.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A9)
1996 Sep 3, Hutu guerrillas attacked an army garrison and local government headquarters in northern Burundi.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A10)
1996 Oct 21, In Murambi village, Burundi, some 300 (258-435) Hutu refugees returned from Zaire and were killed as they sought refuge in a village church.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A8)(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C2)
1997 Jan 5, In Burundi the Tutsi-led army attacked and killed hundreds of Hutus in a dispute over land at Bukeye in central Burundi.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 11, Soldiers shot and killed 126 Burundian Hutu refugees trying to break out of a holding camp in the northeast. Seven soldiers were arrested for the slayings.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb 21, It was reported that Burundi troops killed more than 150 civilians in reprisals for rebel attacks. 100 people were killed at Mugara and fifty near Maramvya.
(SFC, 2/22/96, p.A12)
1997 Apr 16, African leaders of 7 nations eased their embargo on Burundi to alleviate local suffering.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.A12)
1997 May 13, An outbreak of Typhus was reported in Burundi. Some 20,000 cases in 3 northwest provinces were reported by March, mostly in Hutu regroupment camps set up by the Tutsi-led military.
(WSJ, 5/13/97, p.A1)
1997 May 29, It was reported that the Tutsi-led army killed more than 40 Hutu rebels that included Hutu students kicked out of Bujumbura Univ. in 1995.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 1, A UN report from this day was made public in 2000 and cited Tutsi informants claiming that they helped to shoot down the airplane carrying Rwandan Pres. Juvanal Habyarimana on Apr 6, 1994.
(SFC, 3/2/00, p.A14)
1997 Oct 20, Soldiers of the Tutsi army packed 40 civilians into a rural school in the region of Kibezi and tossed a grenade inside. All were killed. Major Andre Nijongabo, a Burundi army commander, defended the incident claiming that the dead were “genocidal terrorists." Hutu rebels had burned 18 schools a week ago.
(SFC, 10/24/97, p.A11)
1997 Marie-Louise Sibazuri launched her Burundi radio drama "Our Neighbors Are Our Family." In 1998 she moved to Belgium and directed the program from there.
(WSJ, 3/16/00, p.A1)
1998 Jan 1, Some 1-2 thousand Hutu rebels attacked a Burundi military base and near the main airport and 150 civilians, 30 rebels and 2 soldiers were reported killed. Later reports said as many as 300 were killed and that the army had sealed up the area.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A14)(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A8)
1998 Jan 12, In Burundi Hutu rebels attacked army positions and at least 55 people were killed.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1988 Jan 21, In Burundi Hutu rebels killed 45 people in 2 attacks, and 20 rebels died in a subsequent battle with the army.
(WSJ, 1/22/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 28, Burundi Colonel Firmin Sinzoyiheba, the Tutsi minister of defense, was killed in a helicopter crash in the Gihinga Hills.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A11)
1998 Burundi military leader Pierre Buyoya was sworn in as president by the democratically elected parliament.
(SFC, 6/12/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 28, In Burundi 34 people were killed south of the capital.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)
1999 Jan 19, Rebels based in Tanzania killed 59 civilians in Makamba, Burundi. In Muresi Hill 76 civilians were killed.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)
1999 Jan 28, In Burundi officials reported that at least 178 civilians had been killed over the last 2 weeks in clashes between rebels and government troops.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)
1999 May 14, In Burundi 5 soldiers were sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of Pres. Melchior Ndadaye.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)
1999 Jul 16, In Burundi peace talks ended in a deadlock.
(SFC, 7/17/99, p.A14)
1999 Jul, Burundi government troops began herding Hutu farmers around Bujumbura into 58 makeshift camps to deprive rebels of support. Cholera, dysentery and malnutrition soon became rife in the camps.
(SFC, 1/3/00, p.A9)
1999 Aug 29, In Burundi Hutu militiamen attacked 2 neighborhoods outside Bujumbura and killed at least 26 civilians.
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.A14)
1999 Aug 31, It was reported that Bryan Rich of America and Alexis Sinduhije of Burundi, founders of the country's first independent news outlet, were making a documentary called "Breaking the Code," featuring interviews with Hutu and Tutsi participants in the 1993 slaughter.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A12)
1999 Sep 24, In Burundi the government reported that Hutu rebels had hacked to death 11 civilians in 2 separate attacks.
(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A14)
1999 Sep 26, In Nyambuye, Burundi, 30 people were killed in a Catholic church. Unidentified men in uniform opened fire while mostly Hutu worshipers prayed.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C14)
1999 Sep 28, It was reported that the Burundi army has recently forced over 200,000 villagers into makeshift camps without food or water and that 100 people had died over the past week.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C14)
1999 Oct 12, In Burundi Hutu rebels attacked a UN humanitarian convoy and killed 9 people at the Muzye refugee camp in Rutana.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A10)
1999 Nov 22, In Tanzania it was reported that some 500 people per day were fleeing into the country from Burundi as fighting in Burundi intensified.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec 1, African leaders chose Nelson Mandela as the new mediator for talks on ending the 6-year civil war in Burundi.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Dec 20, In Burundi Gabriel Gisabwamana, a Hutu member of parliament, was shot and killed by soldiers at a checkpoint after the 10 p.m. curfew.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.C11)
1999 Dec 31, Burundian soldiers killed at least 43 people including children in the Kabezi commune in Bujumbura Rural province.
(SFC, 1/800, p.A10)
2000 Jan 16, Nelson Mandela addressed peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, and admonished the leaders of Burundi for having failed their people and all of Africa.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 21, In Tanzania African presidents and European ministers appealed to Burundi's leaders to negotiate a swift end to the civil war.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A9)
2000 Mar 3, In Burundi the authorities under int'l. pressure began dismantling 6 of nearly 60 camps holding hundreds of thousands of Hutu civilians.
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.C1)
2000 Apr 25, In Burundi 66 people were reported killed in renewed fighting between Hutu rebels and government troops.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 7, Burundi Pres. Pierre Buyoya made concessions to end the 7-year war. He agreed to integrate the Tutsi-led army and to close down the regroupment camps by July 31.
(SFC, 6/8/00, p.C3)
2000 Jul 7, The East African Community (EAC), founded in 1967, was resurrected following its collapse in 1977. The regional club included six members: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. In 2005 members agreed on a customs union and in 2010 they agreed on a common market.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Community)(Econ, 6/11/16, p.51)
2000 Jul 22, In Burundi uniformed men killed 53 men, women and children in the village of Butaganzwa, when they refused to go to a government regroupment camp.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 6, In Burundi Hutu rebels ambushed a truck carrying military cadets and 28 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed near Nyabiraba village.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 28, Pres. Clinton stopped in Burundi where Tutsi minority parties refused to sign a deal with the Hutu majority. Clinton urged the parties to work for peace.
(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A6)
2000 Dec 28, Hutu rebels ambushed a commuter bus outside Bujumbura and killed 20 passengers.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A10)
2001 Apr 9, In Burundi villagers were caught in crossfire fighting between the army and Hutu rebels. 11-30 people were killed and thousands were forced to flee their homes.
(SFC, 4/12/01, p.C2)
2001 Apr 18, The Burundi army put down a coup attempt by junior officers opposed to Pres. Buyoya’s negotiations with Hutu rebels.
(SFC, 4/19/01, p.A11)
2001 Jun 3, It was reported the Burundi was poised for war due to conflicts between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A16)
2001 Jul 23, In Burundi Pres. Buyoya survived a coup attempt by Tutsi soldiers and sealed a power-sharing accord with Hutu politicians. The Arusha accord called for Buyoya to lead for 18 months followed by a Hutu president for another 18 months with elections to follow.
(WSJ, 7/24/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/01, p.A6)
2001 Sep 28, It was reported that clashed in Burundi between government forces and Hutu rebels had killed at least 19 civilians and 22 soldiers over the last week.
(SFC, 9/28/01, p.D6)
2001 Oct, Some 150 political exiles returned to participate in the 3-year transition to democracy. Some 700 South African soldiers massed in Bujumbura to help protect the exiles.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.C7)
2001 Nov 6, In Munini, Burundi, 24 civilians were reported dead from fighting between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi dominated army.
(SFC, 11/7/01, p.A16)
2001 Nov 9, Hutu rebels in Burundi abducted 80 teenage boys and 4 teachers from 3 schools in Ruyigi. Forced recruitment was believed to be the reason. Hundreds of youths escaped and at least 3 were left dead.
(WSJ, 11/8/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 7, Int’l. donors promised Burundi over $760 million for reconstruction and to fight AIDS. About 11.3% of the population was infected with HIV.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A7)
2001 Dec 25, Burundi Maj. Gen. Gahiro reported that 515 Hutu rebels and 28 soldiers had been killed in the Tenga region since Nov 26. He said fighting the area was liberated but that fighting continued.
(SFC, 12/26/01, p.A8)
2002 Jan 15, Fighting began in Burundi between the army and Hutu rebels. At least 60 people were dead after a week.
(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 19, In Burundi fighting between the Tutsi dominated army and Hutu rebels forced over 16,000 people from their homes over the last 2 days.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 4, National Liberation Forces rebels, one of 2 rebel Hutu groups, attacked military positions near Bujumbura and caused thousands of people to flee the area.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A13)
2002 Jun 11, More than 40 Burundian refugees returning home from Tanzania after years in exile died when the truck carrying them overturned, an official said.
(AP, 6/12/02)
2002 Jun 21, In Burundi a court has sentenced 11 people to death and 16 others to life imprisonment for taking part in massacres that followed the 1993 assassination of Burundi's first democratically elected leader.
(AP, 6/21/02)
2002 Jun 27, Burundian rebels said they had repelled a major government offensive against bases in the Kibera National Park, saying 35 government soldiers had been killed in five day of fighting.
(AP, 6/27/02)
2002 Jul 26, The Burundian army claimed it has killed at least 500 Hutu rebels during fighting over the last two weeks, while suffering only 15 losses.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Aug 30, In Burundi the army reportedly killed 48 Hutu rebels in clashes outside Bujumbura.
(SFC, 9/5/02, p.A11)
2002 Sep 9, In Burundi 183 civilians were killed by uniformed men in an area of heavy fighting between government troops and rebels. On Sep 18 the government promised an investigation.
(AP, 9/18/02)
2002 Oct 7, In Burundi 2 smaller factions of the main rebel movements signed a cease-fire aimed at ending the 9-year civil war.
(AP, 10/8/02)
2002 Nov 2, In Burundi at least 15,000 people have fled their homes as fighting between the army and rebels escalated despite peace talks.
(AP, 11/2/02)
2002 Nov 22, Burundi's largest rebel faction launched a mortar attack on Bujumbura from the surrounding hills, causing thousands of residents to flee their homes in the northern part of the city.
(AP, 11/22/02)
2002 Dec 3, In Burundi Pres. Pierre Buyoya and Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the main faction of the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, or FDD, agreed to a cease-fire in their 9-year civil war (effective Dec 30), in theory leaving only one rebel group fighting in a conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people.
(AP, 12/3/02)
2003 Jan 15, In Burundi 2 weeks of fighting between the Tutsi-dominated army and two rebel groups has displaced more than 30,000 people in two provinces.
(AP, 1/15/03)
2003 Mar 22, Burundi's hardline Hutu rebel group expressed satisfaction with its first round of peace talks in Switzerland.
(AP, 3/22/03)
2003 Mar 26, The Burundian army attacked a rebel stronghold in a Kibira forest with mortars and artillery, killing 68 insurgents. Rebels said only 2 fighters were killed.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Apr 2, Burundi said Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa will send 3,500 peacekeepers to enforce a truce ending nearly 10 years of civil war.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 8, In Burundi battles started between the Tutsi-dominated army and the rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy, or FDD, after the army tried to intercept insurgents moving into Gitega province. More than 6,000 people fled their homes in response.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Burundi a mortar shell apparently fired from rebel positions in the hills northwest of Bujumbura crashed into a house, killing three children and wounding a woman and another child. The latest fighting has forced 50,000 people to flee their homes.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 30, Burundi's Tutsi minority handed over the presidency to Domitien Ndayizeye of the Hutu majority as part of the peace process aimed at ending 9 1/2 years of civil war.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 May 11, The Burundi army killed 23 Hutu rebels during fighting in central Burundi, but the insurgents claimed the dead were civilians.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Burundi Hutu rebels fought their way into part of the capital, trading gun, mortar and grenade fire with the Tutsi-dominated army. Thousands fled their homes.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 10, In Burundi recent fighting left an estimated 170 people killed according to a UN estimate. 6,000 to 7,000 others had been forced to flee their homes.
(AP, 7/12/03)
2003 Sep 21, The latest outbreak of fighting between Hutu rebels and the army in Burundi's decade-long civil war has killed at least 12 people on the outskirts of Bujumbura.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2003 Oct 27, In Burundi fighting between government soldiers and Hutu rebels has forced more than 5,000 people to flee their homes in the hills surrounding the capital of Bujumbura.
(AP, 10/28/03)
2003 Nov 2, Burundi's president and main rebel leader signed a peace agreement, but efforts to end the decade-long civil war were threatened by renewed fighting between Tutsi-dominated government troops and other Hutu rebels.
(AP, 11/2/03)
2003 Nov 3, It was reported from Burundi that a decade of civil war as well as fighting in neighboring Congo had decimated the once 300-strong herd of hippos whose habitat is the marshy Ruzizi River that flows from the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. In August, the World Wildlife Fund warned that 185 miles to the north, only 1,300 hippos of the 29,000 recorded 30 years ago remained in and around Lake Edward.
(AP, 11/3/03)
2003 Nov 10, In Burundi Hutu rebels bombarded the capital with rockets, killing 5 people, destroying part of the Chinese Embassy and striking the home of a U.S. military attache.
(AP, 11/10/03)
2003 Nov 16, Burundi's government signed a comprehensive power-sharing plan with the Hutu FDD, country's largest rebel group, a major step toward ending a 10-year war that has killed at least 200,000 people.
(AP, 11/16/03)(Econ, 8/14/04, p.44)
2003 Nov 19, Rebel holdouts in Burundi clashed with government troops in a capital slum, killing 11 people, mainly noncombatants caught in the crossfire.
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Dec 22, An international human rights group criticized a peace agreement giving soldiers and rebels temporary immunity from prosecution for atrocities committed against civilians in Burundi's 10-year civil war.
(AP, 12/22/03)
2003 Dec 29, In Burundi gunmen killed Monsignor Michael Courtney, the pope's ambassador, firing on his car as he was returning from a funeral.
(AP, 12/29/03)
2003 Dec, In Burundi the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), the biggest Hutu rebel group, joined Burundi's transitional government. FNL rebels under Agathon Rwasa (39) continued to lob mortar shells into Bujumbura.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.41)
2004 Jan 12, In Burundi Hutu rebels killed 17 people, including five soldiers, in attacks northwest of Bujumbura over the last 2 days.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Feb 24, An earthquake shook Burundi, killing three people and destroying at least two dozen homes.
(AP, 2/24/04)
2004 Aug 13, The FNL, a Burundian Hutu rebel faction, raided Gatumba camp, a UN refugee camp in western Burundi, shooting and hacking to death 160 people. The camp sheltered Congolese ethnic Tutsi refugees, known as the Banyamulenge.
(AP, 8/14/04)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.37)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.44)
2004 Nov 18, The UN Security Council opened an extraordinary two-day session in Nairobi, the first outside its New York headquarters in 14 years. Sudan topped the agenda. Great Lakes regional foreign ministers approved a pact for greater cross-border cooperation and confidence-building. It was due to be adopted at a summit in Dar es Salaam.
(AP, 11/18/04)(AP, 11/19/04)
2004 Nov 19, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged leaders of Africa's blood-soaked Great Lakes region to implement a peace plan that could herald a "new era" for millions of Africans.
(AP, 11/19/04)
2004 Burundi created a national army out of former army and seven former rebel movements.
(AFP, 10/22/11)
2005 Feb 28, Burundians voted on a new constitution that enshrines Hutu control by allotting them 60% of parliamentary seats with 40% for Tutsis.
(WSJ, 3/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 13, Burundi began forced repatriation of thousands of Rwandan refugees, who feared reprisals at home. The UN condemned the action.
(WSJ, 6/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 4, Burundi's main Hutu ex-rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), won a comfortable victory in legislative elections, taking 58.23% of the vote.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Aug 19, Pierre Nkurunziza (40), a former Hutu rebel leader, was chosen by lawmakers as Burundi's president, culminating an internationally mediated effort that hopes to bring peace to a central African nation wrecked by a dozen years of ethnic war. Burundi’s 12-year civil war left as many as 300,000 people dead.
(AP, 8/20/05)(Econ, 3/29/14, p.50)
2005 Sep 19, Classrooms and chairs were scarce at crowded Burundian primary schools as 500,000 children, nearly double last year's enrollment, showed up for the first day of classes following the elimination of fees.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Dec 31, A first group of UN peacekeepers from Mozambique left Burundi as part of a phased withdrawal of troops that will end in December next year.
(AFP, 12/31/05)
2006 Jan 1, East African leaders said that millions of people in the region faced hunger because poor rains had affected vital crops and pasture. Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania faced acute food shortages.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 5, The UN said around 2,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees have arrived in Burundi in the past month, many saying they feel insecure in Rwanda or are being refused permission to cultivate their land.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Feb 27, In Burundi a government official acknowledged that rogue soldiers and police officers have executed and tortured suspected rebels and civilians.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 May 29, Burundi's only hold-out rebel group began talks with the government in an effort to end the central African country's 12-year civil war.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 Jun 17, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza left to sign a cease-fire agreement with the country's last rebel group in neighboring Tanzania as his government works toward ending a 12-year conflict.
(AP, 6/18/06)
2006 Jun 18, Burundi's government and the country's last rebel group agreed, while meeting in Tanzania, to end hostilities and sign a comprehensive cease-fire deal in two weeks.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 30, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to conclude its peacekeeping mission in Burundi on Dec. 31 and replace it with a UN office to help promote development and democracy in the central African nation.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Aug 6, In Burundi gunmen hurled a grenade at a bar frequented by army officers, killing four people. Authorities said the attack was an attempt to undermine the government.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 21, Burundi police arrested former President Domitien Ndayizeye, apparently in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the tiny central African country's government.
(Reuters, 8/21/06)
2006 Sep 5, Burundi Vice-President Alice Nzomukunda resigned over corruption and human rights abuses that she says are hampering her nation's progress.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5316690.stm)
2006 Sep 7, Burundi's government and the country's last rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL) signed a permanent cease-fire as the central African nation emerges from 12 years of civil war.
(AP, 9/7/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.57)
2006 Oct 17, The United States said it plans to take in about 10,000 Burundian refugees from Tanzania, many of whom fled their landlocked nation as far back as 1972.
(Reuters, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 25, A rights group said Burundi's spy agency has executed 38 people and arbitrarily detained 200 others since the Central African nation's new government came to power. New York-based Human Rights Watch accused President Pierre Nkurunziza’s year-old government of failing to prosecute those accused of extra-judicial killings.
(AP, 10/25/06)
2006 Nov 30, The East African Community (EAC) said Rwanda and Burundi have been accepted as members, expanding the regional economic bloc to five nations. The EAC previously grouped Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, which hoped to transform the region into a political federation.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Kenya 11 African heads of state attending the 2nd International Conference on the Great Lakes Region signed a landmark $2 billion (1.5-billion-euro) security and development pact to forestall fresh violence in the area.
(AFP, 12/15/06)
2007 Jan 20, The UN’s food agency said some 800,000 Burundians face a serious food crisis after devastating floods ravaged several regions of the tiny central African nation.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Feb 26, The World Vision humanitarian group said that more than 50% of children in refugee camps around Africa's volatile Great Lakes area have experienced some form of sexual abuse. The data, collected in camps in the Burundi, Congo (DRC), Tanzania, northern Uganda and Rwanda, said widespread poverty made children vulnerable to abuses.
(AFP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 28, Burundi said that it will send 1,700 peacekeepers to Somalia as part of an 8,000-strong African Union force, while the first Ugandan contingent prepared to leave for the war-torn nation.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 15, Human Rights Watch released a report that said Children in Burundi suffer serious abuses in prison, including torture, rape and food shortages, in a criminal justice system that treats them as adults.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 18, The UN said a first group of Congolese refugees, who escaped a 2004 massacre at a camp in Burundi, left for the US to start a program to resettle more than 500 people.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Apr 18, Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda adopted a joint military strategy to fight rebel groups operating in the war-scarred Great Lakes region.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 May 18, A group of 88 Burundians who have lived as refugees in neighboring Tanzania for up to 35 years became the first of some 8,500 to head to the US for a new life.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 23, The UN human rights commissioner said that Burundi has agreed to set up a tribunal to try people suspected of genocide and war crimes during its 12-year civil war.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 25, In Burundi 61 countries and international organizations promised 656 million dollars (488 million euros) during a donors' roundtable in the capital Bujumbura. The World Bank considers Burundi, where 70% of the population lives below the poverty line, the world's third-poorest nation.
(AFP, 5/25/07)
2007 Jun 19, President Jakaya Kikwete said Tanzania will shut camps housing 150,000 refugees from Burundi by the end of this year as the war in the neighbouring central African country is over.
(AFP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jul 21, Jean Berchmans Ndayshimiye, the military leader of Burundi's last rebel group (FNL), escaped back to the bush, sparking fears of renewed civil conflict.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul, Rwanda and Burundi became members of the East African Community (EAC), which included Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 11/17/07)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.52)
2007 Aug 19, Simultaneous grenade attacks were launched on the homes of five Burundian politicians who recently criticized the president, injuring three but failing to harm the targets.
(AFP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 28, Africa's Great Lakes nations (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda) vowed to eliminate rebel groups roaming their territory and spurring insecurity in the continent's most volatile region.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Sep 11, Six Congolese soldiers were detained by the Burundian navy for repeatedly attacking fishing boats on Lake Tanganyika and stealing their catch.
(AFP, 9/12/07)
2007 Oct 16, Burundi's last active rebel group said it will shun a weekend meeting to put the central African nation's derailed peace process back on track as the South African mediator was biased.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 20, Burundi's last active rebel group was urged to implement a 2006 ceasefire as it boycotted a meeting aimed to put the central African nation's derailed peace process back on track.
(AFP, 10/20/07)
2007 Nov 14, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza announced a new unity cabinet drawing members from two leading opposition groups in a bid to end months of political deadlock in the troubled African nation.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, The EU reached an accord with the East African Community (EAC) states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. They will enjoy duty free, quota free access to the EU for all products, except sugar and rice, from January 1. Originally established in 1967, the EAC collapsed a decade later amid diverging economic philosophies. It was resurrected in 2000 as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda agreed to create an EU-style common market for their 90 million citizens. Rwanda and Burundi became members in July this year.
(AP, 11/17/07)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.52)
2007 Dec 23, In Somalia a first contingent of 100 Burundian peacekeepers deployed in the capital, joining 1,800 Ugandan troops in an African Union force, AMISOM, that is still well short of the personnel strength needed to help restore order. Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles attacked an Ethiopian army base in northern Mogadishu, triggering a deadly nighttime clash that sent stray mortar rounds crashing into homes. At least five Somalis were killed and eight wounded in the crossfire.
(AP, 12/23/07)(AFP, 10/22/11)
2007 Dec 24, In southwestern Somalia gunmen threw grenades at the home of the regional police chief, killing two of his grandchildren and a bodyguard but not their target. Burundi deployed a 2nd contingent of 92 peacekeepers to Mogadishu, to bolster an African Union force.
(AP, 12/24/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2008 Jan 20, The final 210 members of the first battalion of Burundian soldiers to be deployed in Somalia as part of an African Union peace-keeping force left Bujumbura for Mogadishu. Burundi is expected to deploy a total of 1,700 soldiers in Somalia, alongside around 1,600 troops from Uganda who have been in the capital Mogadishu since March.
(AFP, 1/20/08)
2008 Mar 14, Five Burundi insurgents and a government soldier were killed in a clash with the army in the north of the war-wracked central African country's capital.
(AFP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 18, The World Food Program (WFP) made a six million dollar appeal to feed some 90,000 Burundian refugees in Tanzania who expect to return to the central African country in 2008.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Apr 17, In Burundi suspected rebels attacked the capital, Bujumbura. A series of attacks killed at least 17 people.
(AP, 4/18/08)(WSJ, 4/19/08, p.A1)
2008 May 18, In Burundi as the government and rebels sought unsuccessfully to reach agreement in negotiations to reinstate a 2006 ceasefire deal, the army attacked National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebel positions south of Bujumbura.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 25, Burundian officials said the army killed three rebels near the capital over the weekend, the latest in a series of violent clashes in the central African nation.
(AFP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, Burundi's government and last active rebel group signed an unconditional ceasefire agreement, raising hopes of a definitive end to the small central African nation's 15-year civil war.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 30, Agathon Rwasa, the exiled leader of Burundi's last rebel group, returned to the capital to begin implementing a stalled deal seen as the final obstacle to peace in the tiny central African country.
(Reuters, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 8, Burundi's top rebel leader and the government's chief negotiator pledged to work to end 15 years of civil war as they arrived in South Africa for talks on the country's peace process.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jul 16, The United States signed a pair of agreements to boost trade and investment ties with countries in southern and eastern Africa. These included the Trade, Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement with the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU), which includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland; and the Trade Investment and Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the East African Community, which includes Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Oct 14, Burundi said it has completed its deployment of another 850 soldiers to Somalia, bringing to about 3,400 the total number of African Union peacekeepers stationed there. Burundi had already deployed some 850 soldiers to Somalia as part of AMISOM (African mission in Somalia).
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 16, Around one million Burundian children under the age of five suffer chronic malnutrition, the UN food agency announced as it marked World Food Day in the tiny central African nation.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Nov 17, In Somalia witnesses said African Union (AU) peacekeepers from Burundi have started moving into positions usually manned by Ethiopian troops in the capital Mogadishu, as part of the ongoing Djibouti peace process.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 22, Burundi's parliament adopted a new set of laws abolishing the death penalty for the first time in the troubled central African country.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Dec 2, A Burundi soldier serving with African Union forces in Somalia was killed in fighting with Islamist insurgents in the war-torn capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Burundi a summit was held in Bujumbura stating the position of the Great Lakes region on the implementation of the peace agreements signed at the Dar es Salaam summit of 2006 in Tanzania.
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200812040216.html)
2009 Jan 2, In Burundi an 8-year-old albino boy was hacked to death in front of his mother and made off with his arms and legs. The body parts of a single albino, to be used in witch doctor potions, fetched about $1000. This attack followed another on a 6-year-old girl.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.50)
2009 Mar 13, In Burundi an albino man was murdered and dismembered overnight by suspected smugglers with links to Tanzanian witch doctors, the fourth such case in a month in the central African nation.
(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Jul 24, Burundi army officials said 3 of its soldiers serving with African Union peacekeepers in Somalia have died of a mysterious illness in a Kenyan hospital where more than 10 others are being treated.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Aug 1, Burundi said it has deployed a third battalion of 850 soldiers to Mogadishu to reinforce the African Union peacekeeping mission there. With the new troops, more than 5,000 soldiers from Burundi and Uganda are now taking part in the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which began in March 2007 and has cost the lives of 17 Burundian soldiers.
(AFP, 8/2/09)
2009 Oct 5, In Burundi 2 days of clashes began as government forces fired live rounds in the air to deter hundreds of Congolese refugees from returning home. Some 900 refugees had decided to return home on foot rather than be transferred to a new camp further away from the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 23, Somali Islamist rebels threatened to attack the capitals of Burundi and Uganda, the two central African countries that have deployed peacekeeping troops to prop up Somali's transitional government.
(AFP, 10/23/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Tanzania members of the East Africa Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda) signed a common market agreement in Arusha, headquarters of the EAC.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/21/content_12513712.htm)
2009 Nov 30, Interpol and the Kenya Wildlife Service said African authorities over the last 3 months had raided shops, intercepted vehicles at checkpoints and used sniffer dogs to detect and seize over 3,800 pounds (1,768kg) of illegal elephant ivory in a six-nation operation. This involved the wildlife authorities, police and customs departments of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 30, In Burundi the last South African soldiers from the African Union Special Task Force still operating in Burundi completed their mission and left the country for good to return to South Africa.
(AFP, 12/31/09)
2010 Mar 4, In Rwanda 2 grenade blasts wounded 16 people in the capital, in the second wave of grenade attacks to hit Kigali in two weeks. On March 6 authorities said Deo Mushayidi, a former member of the then rebel group Rwandan Patriotic Front that ended the 1994 genocide, was arrested in neighboring Burundi. The government has also accused two former senior army officers now exiled in South Africa of being behind the attacks.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 May 3, In Burundi attackers chopped off the limbs of a 5-year-old albino boy and pulled out his mother's eye, killing them over the belief that their body parts would bring wealth and success. Ten assailants armed with guns and grenades killed Desire Vyegura (5) and his mother, Susann Vyegura. Thoma Vyegura, who was not albino, was also killed while trying to protect his daughter and grandson.
(AP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 19, The Burundian government said in a statement that it had given Neela Ghoshal, a Human Rights Watch researcher, until June 5 to leave the country. Burundi is due to hold its first round of elections after nearly 16 years of civil war May 23. Presidential polls are scheduled for June 28.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 24, Burundians turned out in droves to vote in local polls marking the first phase of an electoral marathon, the first of a series of polls in which the tiny African nation will also vote for representatives to parliament and its next president.
(AFP, 5/24/10)
2010 Jun 1, In Burundi 5 presidential candidates in upcoming elections said they're withdrawing from the race because of rigged voting. The candidates announced their withdrawal following a May 24 vote that opposition parties said were rigged by the ruling party, which received 64 percent of votes. Four rounds of voting remain.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 4, Burundi's main Tutsi party followed five opposition parties in pulling out from the central African nation's June presidential poll, leaving serving leader Pierre Nkurunziza as the sole candidate.
(AFP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 21, In Burundi the president of the ruling party's youth league was assassinated by unknown gunmen.
(AFP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 22, In Burundi 2 people were reported killed and several wounded overnight in the latest spate of attacks to rock the East African nation amid a tense electoral crisis.
(AFP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 27, Burundi's police overnight arrested six senior officials from an opposition party, as the troubled central African nation prepared for a controversial presidential election.
(AFP, 6/27/10)
2010 Jun 28, Burundi began voting for a president. Incumbent Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza was the lone candidate.
(AP, 6/28/10)
2010 Jun 30, In Burundi politicians boycotting the elections dismissed the results as a sham.
(SFC, 7/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 2, It was reported that grenade attacks in Burundi have killed 8 people and wounded almost 50 over the last month.
(WSJ, 7/2/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 22, Burundi was labeled as the most corrupt country in East Africa in a survey by Transparency International. Rwanda was found to be the least corrupt among the five countries in the region.
(AP, 7/22/10)
2010 Aug 26, Interpol said police have seized about 10 metric tons of counterfeit medicines and arrested 80 people in a sweep across eastern Africa. Authorities across Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar took part in the bust.
(Reuters, 8/26/10)
2010 Sep 24, Agathon Rwasa, a former rebel chief in Burundi, appealed by letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon to intervene and prevent the east African nation from falling again into violent conflict. Rwasa headed the ex-rebel National Liberation Forces, which became a political party in 2009 after a peace deal ended Burundi's 13-year civil war.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Nov 19, In the Republic of Congo 8 countries signed a convention to limit the spread of weapons in central Africa, but three countries opted out. Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, The Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe all signed. Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda did not sign.
(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Some 100,000 Twa pygmies remained in the Great Lakes region of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and CongoDRC. Most of them were barred from their ancestral forests including the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, which was turned into a national park in 1991.
(Econ, 9/25/10, SR p.11)
2010 Burundi’s population stood at about 9 million. Tax revenues were around $9 million.
(Econ, 7/24/10, p.48)
2011 Mar 4, Two Nairobi-based diplomats said at least 43 Burundian and 10 Ugandan troops have been killed in Somalia since Feb. 18. A major offensive against Islamist militants began on Feb 19.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 14, Burundi said it has deployed an additional 1,000 soldiers for the African Union force protecting the Somali government.
(AFP, 3/14/11)
2011 Jul 1, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza appealed for the first time to opposition leaders in exile to return home and begin a dialogue, in a speech to mark the country's independence.
(AFP, 7/2/11)
2011 Jul 4, In Burundi an armed gang raided two police posts in Bujumbura and dropped leaflets saying they were members of a rebel group called FRONABU-Tabara (Burundi National Front). Four suspects were arrested.
(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 15, In Burundi lawyer Suzanne Bukuru was arrested and imprisoned for helping French journalists get an interview with victims she is representing in a rape trial involving a Frenchman Patrice Faye (58). On July 25 lawyers in Burundi announced a week-long strike in protest at the arrest of Bukuru for "complicity in espionage."
(AFP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 19, In Burundi at least nine people died in clashes between unidentified "armed gangsters" and security forces in northwest Cibitoke province. Two soldiers, a police officer and six "gangsters" were among the dead.
(AFP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 25, A court in Burundi found Frenchman Patrice Faye (58) guilty of raping five teenagers, giving him a 25-year jail sentence and a fine of 14,000 euros ($20,000). Faye was accused of raping five girls aged 13 to 17, students at a school he set up for poor children. He denied the charges and said a doctor had confirmed that three of his accusers were still virgins.
(AFP, 7/25/11)
2011 Aug 11, Burundi and South Africa signed several cooperation deals including in defense, education and agriculture during Pres. Zuma's visit to the central African country.
(AFP, 8/11/11)
2011 Sep 2, In Somalia Malaysian cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd Nor was killed in Mogadishu by 4 Burundi peacekeepers. The 4 were later discharged from the force and faced trial in Burundi.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 16, Burundi opposition leader Agathon Rwasa, suspected to be behind a spate of violent incidents, accused state security forces of massacring and torturing his supporters.
(AFP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 18, In Burundi armed men burst into a pub in Gatumba. One wounded man said an attacker yelled: "Make sure there's no survivors." Survivor Jackson Kabura said the men entered wearing military fatigues. The bar shooting left 39 people dead. The accused later claimed the massacre's "sponsors" were top security official General Maurice Mbonimpa, deputy police chief General Gervais Ndirakobuca and the commander of a special police unit, Colonel Desire Uwamahoro.
(AP, 9/19/11)(AFP, 9/23/11)(AFP, 12/13/11)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.60)
2011 Oct 20, In Somalia pro-government forces supported by foreign troops chased al-Shabab out of Mogadishu’s northernmost neighborhood, Deynile, in a dawn offensive. Al-Qaida-linked militants claimed to have killed 70 foreign African Union peacekeepers but an eyewitness said many of the bodies put on display were likely Somali government soldiers. An AU spokesman the next day said that the insurgents had stolen uniforms and dressed up scores of their own dead. The AU said 10 soldiers were killed, including 6 from Burundi, with two missing after intense fighting with insurgents. A week later it was reported that 51 Burundian soldiers were killed in the clash.
(AP, 10/20/11)(AP, 10/21/11)(AFP, 10/22/11)(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Nov 21, Burundi security forces shot dead 18 "armed bandits" in clashes in the eastern province of Cankuzo, part of a new rebellion based in Ruvubu National Park.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, A Burundi rights group, the Government Action Observatory (OAG), said government-backed death squads have killed more than 300 members of a former rebel group and opposition supporters in covert operations over the past five months.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 27, Gunmen in Burundi murdered Sister Luckrecija Mamic, a Croatian nun, and an Italian charity worker in an apparent botched robbery and kidnapping. Sister Carla Brianza was later shot dead while Sister Carla Brianza, an Italian nun, fought off her attackers and escaped with relatively minor wounds. Two men, aged 20 and 24, were arrested for the attack after a shootout.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Burundi told delegates at a global anti-landmine summit in Phnom Penh that it had cleared its territory of landmines, becoming the 18th state party to do so. Myanmar was the only country recorded as laying new landmines last year, but the Intl. Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said it has since been joined by Israel, Syria and Libya, bringing the current global use of landmines to its highest level since 2004.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2012 Jan 11, Alexis Sinduhije, the head of Burundi’s opposition Movement for Solidarity and Development, a former journalist, was arrested in Tanzania upon his arrival there from Uganda. On Jan 21 Burundi admitted that it had asked for the exiled Burundian opposition leader to be arrested in Tanzania and extradited to face murder charges.
(AFP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 21, Burundi admitted that it had asked for an exiled Burundian opposition leader to be arrested in Tanzania and extradited to face murder charges. Alexis Sinduhije, the head of the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Development, a former journalist, was arrested in Tanzania's economic capital Dar es Salaam on January 11 upon his arrival there from Uganda.
(AFP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 24, Tanzanian police freed Burundian opposition leader Alexis Sinduhije, who was arrested two weeks ago in Dar es Salaam at Burundi's request. Sinduhije was expelled to Uganda.
(AFP, 1/24/12)
2012 May 2, Burundi blocked Human Rights Watch from holding a press conference to release a report on the country's political violence, which it blamed on state agents and armed opposition groups.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 5, In Burundi an armed gang kidnapped, killed and dismembered overnight an albino girl (15) in Burundi's 18th such slaying in less than four years. Albinos Sans Frontieres said the government was failing to protect albinos and said everyone sentenced to prison in the killings had escaped.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 Jun 20, A Burundian court sentenced journalist Hassan Ruvakuki and 13 others to life in prison on terrorism charges for a November attack launched from across the Tanzanian border, a ruling criticized by media watchdogs.
(AFP, 6/20/12)
2012 Jun 27, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza pardoned "several thousand" prisoners in order to address prison overcrowding and celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence on July 1. Eloge Niyonzima, a journalist for a private radio station in Bubanza, was beaten up overnight by members of the ruling party's youth wing militia.
(AFP, 6/27/12)
2012 Jul 24, Burundi's anti-corruption court sentenced Faustin Ndikumana, an anti-graft activist, to five years in jail for "false declarations." Ndikumana was arrested February 7 after writing a letter in which he said candidates for the post of judge in Burundi had to pay a bribe, and that the justice minister was in part responsible for this state of affairs.
(AFP, 7/24/12)
2012 Jul 26, The UN's food agency said 10 Central African countries have agreed to take part in a regional initiative to monitor the Congo Basin, one of the world's largest primary rainforests. They included Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.
(AFP, 7/26/12)
2013 Sep 12, A UN official said at least 25,000 Burundian refugees living in Tanzania have been forcibly repatriated over the past month, describing a "dramatic" humanitarian situation.
(AFP, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 13, Burundi opened an investigation into claims that a former ethnic Hutu rebel leader ordered the massacre of Congolese refugees in an attack almost a decade ago. The Banyamulenge, an ethnic Tutsi tribe from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, in August accused Agathon Rwasa of ordering the killing of 166 Banyamulenge seeking refuge inside a camp in Burundi in 2004.
(Reuters, 9/13/13)
2013 Nov 10, Burundi officials said police have discovered dozens of human skulls during a search of the home of an Italian expatriate. Giuseppe Favaro, has been in custody since late October after he was caught trying to export two skulls to Thailand.
(AFP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 30, Five east African countries signed a protocol to establish a monetary union, in a first step towards creating a single currency. At a summit in Kampala, leaders from Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda inked the framework to set up a single market modelled after the eurozone.
(AFP, 11/30/13)
2013 Dec 9, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the US military to transport troops from Burundi into the Central African Republic to help quell the latest upsurge in violence there.
(AP, 12/10/13)
2014 Jan 28, Burundi's top lawyer, Isidore Rufyikiri, was sacked after criticizing the government and being accused of urging the people to rebel.
(AFP, 1/29/14)
2014 Feb 10, In Burundi at least 60 people perished in flooding and landslides following a night of torrential rain in Bujumbura that swept away hundreds of homes and cut off roads and power.
(AFP, 2/10/14)
2014 Feb 11, The Burundi Red Cross said torrential rains and landslides have left at least 77 people dead and about 12,000 displaced.
(Reuters, 2/11/14)
2014 Mar 8, In Burundi violent clashes in Bujumbura pitted opposition Movement for Solidarity and Development activists against police. 21 MSD activists were arrested.
(AFP, 3/16/14)(Econ, 3/29/14, p.50)
2014 Mar 10, A Burundian official said South Africa has expelled a diplomat from Burundi's embassy in connection with a raid on an exiled Rwandan general's Johannesburg home and Burundi is considering a response.
(Reuters, 3/10/14)
2014 Mar 12, Burundi charged opposition leader Alexis Sinduhije, who is on the run from police, and 71 party supporters with rebellion following March 8 clashes.
(AFP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 21, Burundi sentenced 21 activists from a key opposition party to life in jail for "armed revolt" after a jogging protest earlier this month turned into violent clashes with police.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Apr 17, Burundi’s ruling CNDD-FDD party voted to create a reconciliation commission. Opposition parties boycotted the vote saying it will shield the ruling party from accountability for past crimes.
(Reuters, 4/18/14)
2014 May 11, China signed a deal with East African leaders to build a $3.8 billion rail link between Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Nairobi, the first stage of a line that will eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
(AFP, 5/11/14)
2014 Jul 2, African nations agreed to suspend military operations for six months against Congo-based Rwandan rebels in order to give them more time to lay down their arms. The suspension was announced after a meeting in Angola of foreign ministers from a regional bloc including Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, DRC, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul, On the Burundi-Rwanda border corpses started coming with rotting bodies and bound limbs or stuffed in sacks, floating on the glittering waters of Lake Rweru. Fishermen report seeing as many as 40 bodies. In 2006 the bodies of Burundian opponents murdered in political violence were thrown into various rivers in the country.
(AP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 8, The Italian foreign ministry said 3 missionary nuns have been found slain in their convent in Burundi.
(SFC, 9/9/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 20, Burundi's National Intelligence Service detained Brice Nzohabonayo in the capital Bujumbura shortly after his brother Bertrand Nzohabonayo attacked a police station in Joue-les-Tours, France.
(AFP, 12/22/14)
2015 Jan 1, In Burundi a group of unidentified rebels crossed into the country overnight from DRCongo's eastern Kivu region.
(AfP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, A Burundi military official said at least 105 rebels have been killed after a cross-border attack from the Democratic Republic of Congo following five days of non-stop military operations. Five gunmen dressed in military fatigues burst into a bar and shot dead 3 ruling party activists before torching the local party office in the eastern Gisuru region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Burundi some 150 journalists and civil rights activists demonstrated to demand the release of a radio station boss accused of complicity in the murder of three Italian nuns last September.
(AFP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 12, Human Rights Watch said Burundian troops executed at least 47 surrendered rebels last month, part of a "broader pattern" of violence coming ahead of key elections.
(AFP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Burundi thousands marched through the capital in one of the largest demonstrations in recent years after the release of Bob Rugurika, a popular journalist and government critic from jail, months ahead of key elections.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Apr 15, The United Nations refugee agency said more than 5,800 Burundian refugees have crossed into Rwanda so far this month amid fears of violence before elections scheduled for June 26.
(AP, 4/15/15)
2015 Apr 17, Burundi police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters calling for the president not to run for a third term.
(AFP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 18, Burundi charged 65 protestors with rebellion after they were arrested a day earlier during clashes with police while calling for the president not to seek re-election.
(AFP, 4/19/15)
2015 Apr 24, Burundi's government announced a nationwide ban on demonstrations following threats by the opposition and activists to step up protests against controversial plans by the president to seek re-election.
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 25, Burundi's president was declared as candidate for a controversial third term in office.
(AFP, 4/25/15)
2015 Apr 26, Burundian police shot dead 2 protesters and wounded at least one other, in demonstrations against the president seeking a third term.
(Reuters, 4/26/15)
2015 Apr 27, Burundi authorities arrested a leading dissident and shut down the main independent radio station as they battled a second day of demonstrations against a bid by the president to cling to power for a third term. The Red Cross said at least 6 people have been killed in the street clashes.
(AFP, 4/27/15)(SFC, 4/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 28, In Burundi police fired tear gas and shot in the air to disperse hundreds of people protesting in the outskirts of Bujumbura against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term. The UN said more than 5,000 Burundians fled to Rwanda over the weekend.
(Reuters, 4/28/15)(AFP, 4/28/15)
2015 Apr 29, Burundi took the controversial question of President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term bid to the constitutional court but opposition supporters dismissed the move and said demonstrations would go on.
(AFP, 4/29/15)
2015 Apr 30, In Burundi at least nine protestors were hurt in Bujumbura in renewed clashes over a bid by the country's president to stand for a third term. A soldier died and a civilian was hurt when an intelligence officer opened fire near a barricade erected by protesters in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 4/30/15)
2015 May 1, In Burundi 2 police officers and a civilian were killed in two grenade attacks late today in Bujumbura.
(AP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, Burundi's government vowed a major crackdown after a week of political protests. Protest organizers called for a two-day halt to demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's move to seek a third term, which they says violates the constitution and endangers the peace deal that ended a civil war in 2005.
(AFP, 5/2/15) (Reuters, 5/2/15)
2015 May 3, Burundi journalists held a somber gathering to mark World Press Freedom Day, after a week of political violence that has also seen radio stations shut down.
(AFP, 5/3/15)
2015 May 4, Burundi police shot dead at least 3 demonstrators and wounded dozens of others, in running battles with protesters angry at a bid by President Pierre Nkurunziza to extend his rule.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 5, Burundi's constitutional court validated the president's controversial bid for a third term but the deputy president of the court, who fled to Rwanda ahead of the ruling, called it unconstitutional.
(AP, 5/5/15)
2015 May 6, The UN said nearly 40,000 refugees have fled Burundi to neighboring Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last month, amid protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.
(Reuters, 5/6/15)
2015 May 7, In Burundi at least 4 people were killed in clashes over the president's bid for a third term. Protesters burned a man alive in Bujumbura, saying he was a member of the ruling party's youth wing which had attacked them during their demonstrations.
(AFP, 5/7/15)(Reuters, 5/7/15)
2015 May 9, Burundi's leading opposition figure, Agathon Rwasa, registered to run in a coming presidential election against Pierre Nkurunziza, whose quest for a third term has sparked two weeks of protests. The government ordered "insurgents" to end weeks of demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term bid and ordered all barricades to be removed within 48 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 10, In Burundi one person was killed in a clash with police in Bujumbura, as the government ordered a ban on any further street protests over President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.
(AP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 11, In Burundi about 2,000 people marched through a neighborhood of Bujumbura as police looked on, breaking the government's ban on any further street protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term in power.
(AP, 5/11/15)
2015 May 12, Burundi police opened fire on protesters as President Pierre Nkurunziza defied international pressure to end a controversial third term bid.
(AFP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 13, Burundi Major General Godefroid Niyombare said he had deposed President Pierre Nkurunziza for seeking an unconstitutional third term in office, and was working with civil society groups to form a transitional government. Niyombare was fired as Nkurunziza's intelligence chief in February. President Pierre Nkurunziza was abroad at an African summit in Tanzania.
(Reuters, 5/13/15)
2015 May 14, Burundi's armed forces chief announced that an attempted coup against President Pierre Nkurunziza had failed, although the claim was quickly denied by opponents of the central African nation's leader. Rival factions of Burundi's army fought intense battles for control of the capital. 12 soldiers who backed the coup were killed. Pres, Nkurunziza returned to Burundi and a deputy coup leader said the attempted coup has failed.
(AFP, 5/14/15)(Reuters, 5/15/15)
2015 May 15, The UN refugee agency said more than 105,000 people have fled Burundi to Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, following an attempted coup and protests.
(Reuters, 5/15/15)
2015 May 16, Burundi officials said five generals have been arrested for plotting a failed coup led by Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare, who remained in hiding.
(SSFC, 5/17/15, p.A2)
2015 May 18, Burundi's president sacked his defense and foreign minister after a failed coup bid, as hundreds of protesters defied warnings to end demonstrations and resumed weeks of anti-government street marches.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 19, Burundi police fired tear gas and beat protesters who were demanding President Pierre Nkurunziza end his bid for a third term. Rights groups say at least 20 people have died in three weeks of clashes between security forces and protesters.
(Reuters, 5/19/15)
2015 May 20, A Burundi army officer said police killed a soldier who was trying act as a buffer between police and protesters, who are demonstrating against the president's bid for a third term in office.
(AP, 5/20/15)
2015 May 21, In Burundi street battles and gunfire erupted again in Bujumbura as protesters against Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza rejected calls for calm. 2 protesters were killed bringing to 20 the number of deaths witnessed by the Red Cross over the last month.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 21, Belgium warned Burundian president Pierre Nkurunziza that it would cut off aid to his government if he went ahead with his bid for a third term in office.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 21, The WHO said a cholera outbreak has killed at least 30 people in a Tanzanian refugee camp for Burundians.
(AP, 5/21/15)
2015 May 22, The UN refugee agency said an outbreak of cholera has infected 3,000 people in a Tanzanian border region where refugees from Burundi have massed. UNHCR said 300 to 400 new cases are being reported daily.
(AP, 5/22/15)
2015 May 23, In Burundi opposition politician Zedi Feruzi and a body guard were killed in a drive-by shooting. Thousands of people attended his funeral the next day.
(AP, 5/24/15)
2015 May 29, Agathon Rwasa, Burundi's most prominent opposition leader, said his party is boycotting elections amid political unrest stemming from the president's bid for a third term.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 31, In Tanzania African leaders began talks in their second summit in a month aimed at restoring peace in Burundi.
(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 Jun 2, Protesters in Burundi clashed again with police just three days ahead of parliamentary elections after a month of demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a controversial third term.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 5, Burundi police shot dead a protester in the capital amid renewed demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AFP, 6/5/15)
2015 Jun 19, Rights activists said at least 77 people have been killed in Burundi in clashes with security forces since the start of antigovernment protests in April.
(SFC, 6/20/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 22, In Burundi 4 people died and at least 30 were wounded in an overnight grenade attack on a bar in the country's northern region of Ngozi. Three people were arrested following the attack.
(AP, 6/22/15)
2015 Jun 25, Burundian students broke into the US embassy to escape police as one of the country's vice presidents announced he had fled to Belgium.
(AFP, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 27, In Burundi witnesses in Jabe neighborhood in of Bujumbura, reported intense gunfire late today in an apparent police crackdown on areas seen as hosting anti-government protesters. Two people were killed in attacks believed to have been carried out by police.
(AP, 6/28/15)
2015 Jun 29, Burundians voted in controversial elections that were condemned internationally amid an opposition boycott and grenade attacks, with the election commission claiming an "enormous" turnout despite many stations being quiet.
(AFP, 6/29/15)
2015 Jul 10, Burundi's government said it backed regional calls to postpone controversial polls, but only by a few days, saying it had asked the election commission to implement the delay. Burundian soldiers clashed with gunmen in a northern region near Rwanda. Government soldiers killed 31 suspected rebels and captured another 170 in Kayanza province.
(AFP, 7/10/15)(SFC, 7/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 12, In Burundi a regional governor said the army has captured scores of gunmen and killed others in two days of clashes in the north.
(Reuters, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 18, In Burundi three candidates announced their withdrawal from the July 21 elections saying the presidential contest will not be free and fair.
(SSFC, 7/19/15, p.A3)
2015 Jul 21, Polls for Burundi’s presidential election opened to the news that 3 people had been killed overnight. On July 24 the election commission announced that President Pierre Nkurunziza won his controversial third consecutive term in office
(AP, 7/21/15)(AFP, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 22, A supporter of Burundi's opposition was shot dead, a victim of electoral violence as the country awaits results of the presidential election amid unrest due to President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.
(AP, 7/23/15)
2015 Jul 25, Burundi's main opposition leader Agathon Rwasa denounced the third consecutive term win by President Pierre Nkurunziza and demanded fresh elections.
(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 27, The US State Department took Malaysia and Cuba off its “tier 3" list of countries failing to combat modern-day slavery, leaving the US open to criticism that politics is swaying the often-contentious rankings in its annual human trafficking report. Burundi, Belize, Belarus, Comoros and South Sudan were downgraded to Tier 3, where Thailand remained for a second year.
(AP, 7/27/15)(Reuters, 7/27/15)
2015 Aug 2, In Burundi General Adolphe Nshimirimana, a close aide to Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza, was killed in a rocket attack on his car in Bujumbura.
(AP, 8/2/15)
2015 Aug 3, Burundian human rights activist Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa was shot in the face as he made his way home from work by a gunman on a motorbike. He publicly opposed Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial and successful bid for a third term last month. Mbonimpa survived and his condition the next day was reported stable.
(AFP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 5, In Burundi Come Harerimana, a local leader of the ruling party, was attacked and killed in Bujumbura, the third high-profile attack in three days.
(Reuters, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 13, Burundi's ruling party termed the controversial re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza (51) a "divine miracle", as the opposition accused him of declaring war by clinging to power. Meanwhile violence continued unabated with at least 3 people killed in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 15, In Burundi unidentified gunmen shot and killed Col. Jean Bikomagu, the former army chief of staff, in the second high-profile killing this month amid chaos linked to the disputed reelection of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AP, 8/15/15)
2015 Aug 18, In Burundi 4 people were killed in Bujumbura as violence persisted following the controversial re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 20, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza was sworn in for a third term without any fanfare or even a public announcement beforehand.
(AP, 8/20/15)
2015 Sep 2, In Burundi anti-government protesters resumed in some neighborhoods in the capital after residents accused the police of harassment. At least 4 people were killed in the renewed clashes.
(AP, 9/2/15)(AFP, 9/2/15)
2015 Sep 7, In Burundi the spokesman for an opposition party was shot and killed outside his home in Bujumbura.
(AP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 11, In Burundi the head of the armed forces survived an assassination attempt in the capital Bujumbura. At least seven people were killed in the attack.
(AFP, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 16, A Burundi official said more than 100 men in a central province have been arrested in two days by security forces trying to prevent Burundians from being recruited to fight the government.
(AP, 9/16/15)
2015 Sep 24, In Burundi unidentified gunmen raided a police station in Bujumbura. One of the attackers was killed with no other casualties.
(Reuters, 9/25/15)
2015 Oct 3, In Burundi at least a dozen civilians were killed in clashes between police and anti-government protesters in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 10/4/15)
2015 Oct 9, In Burundi unknown gunmen killed Pascal Nshirimana, the son-in-law of prominent human rights activist Pierre Clave Mbonimpa, who openly opposed President Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial bid for a third term in office.
(Reuters, 10/9/15)
2015 Oct 13, In Burundi 9 civilians, including a staff member of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), were shot to death reportedly at close range. 2 police officers also died during exchanges of heavy gunfire in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 26, In Burundi gunmen hurled grenades and battled with police in a series of deadly clashes, the latest violence since the controversial re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza. Police killed a "madman" who tried to attack officers with a machete in Bujumbura. Over the next 24 hours more than a dozen people were killed in clashes between security forces and citizens.
(AFP, 10/27/15)(Reuters, 10/28/15)
2015 Nov 2, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza gave civilians five days to surrender any illegal weapons or face tough action by the police. 2 more bodies were discovered in Bujumbura. 9 people have been killed in gunfights with security forces since Oct 31.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 5, In Burundi some residents fled their neighborhood in Bujumbura after they found four bodies on the streets, part of a wave of killings associated with President Pierre Nkurunziza's re-election for a third term.
(AP, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 8, In Burundi gunmen at least 9 people were killed in an attack at a bar in Bujumbura hours before police launched house-to-house searches for weapons. Families were fleeing their homes in the capital, over fears the government will unleash a fresh wave of bloodletting as part of a crackdown to stamp out resistance to the president.
(AFP, 11/8/15)(SFC, 11/9/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 16, In Burundi three grenades exploded in different parts of the capital following a night of violence in which 5 people, including a policeman, were killed. 60 injured people were treated after suffering injuries in grenade explosions.
(AP, 11/16/15)(AP, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 22, Burundi police said at least 5 people were killed in overnight clashes. Residents reported a battle at the president's office in the capital Bujumbura which has been plagued by violence since a disputed presidential election.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 23, The US said it would impose sanctions on four current and former Burundi government officials, including the minister of public security and the leader of a failed coup, because of violence in Burundi.
(Reuters, 11/26/15)
2015 Nov 27, In Burundi attackers shot at a lawmaker from the ruling party as he drove to parliament, killing one police officer and wounding others.
(Reuters, 11/29/15)
2015 Nov 28, In Burundi Colonel Serges Kabanyura was wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen on his way to Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 11/29/15)
2015 Nov 29, In Burundi gunmen in Bujumbura shot dead army Major Salvator Katihabwa and wounded the husband of the senate's deputy speaker.
(AFP, 11/30/15)
2015 Dec 2, In Burundi at least 7 people were killed over the last 24 hours in gun battles and grenade blasts with bodies found dumped on the streets.
(AFP, 12/2/15)
2015 Dec 4, Burundi police shot dead 3 attackers and arrested three others when they foiled an attempt to ambush and assassinate a top police officer in the capital.
(Reuters, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 9, In Burundi at least 7 people were killed in Bujumbura during a night of violence in flashpoint districts where months of protests took place against President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 11, In Burundi gunmen stormed three military installations before dawn. At least 15 people were killed as gunfire and explosions rocked the capital. 87 people were reported killed in the violence.
(AP, 12/11/15)(AP, 12/12/15)
2015 Dec 12, Burundi residents awoke to find at least 39 dead bodies scattered in the streets of Bujumbura, a day after coordinated armed assaults on three military installations. 87 people were killed in an escalation of the violence surrounding the disputed third term of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AFP, 12/12/15)(AP, 12/13/15)
2015 Dec 18, The African Union said it will send a 5,000 strong force to stop violence in troubled Burundi, giving Bujumbura a four-day deadline to agree but warning it would send troops anyway.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, Burundi's government said it would not agree to the deployment of African Union peacekeepers, warning that they would be seen as an invasion force.
(AFP, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 22, Burundi's government rejected a proposed African Union peacekeeping mission already dubbed an "invasion force" by parliament.
(AFP, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 23, Burundi's rebels came together for the first time as a force aimed at ousting President Pierre Nkurunziza, after months of bloodshed in the troubled central African country. The rebels have called themselves the Republican Forces of Burundi, or "Forebu" from its name in French, Les Forces Republicaines du Burundi.
(AFP, 12/23/15)
2015 Dec 26, In Burundi thousands of supporters of the president protested against the African Union's plan to deploy 5,000 peacekeepers to quell the country's escalating unrest.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 27, Rival Burundi factions traveled to Uganda ahead of talks aimed at ending months of violence, as the African Union pushed the government to accept a peacekeeping force.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 28, Burundi's government and opposition kicked off peace talks in Uganda.
(Reuters, 12/28/15)
2015 The population of Burundi was over 10 million.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.42)
2016 Jan 1, In Burundi at least one person was killed and a dozen injured in a series of grenade attacks in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 13, In Burundi Army Capt. Idi Omar Bahenda and police Brig. Jean Claude Niyongabo were killed in a gunfight with military forces in the Kiyenzi area of Bujumbura. Bahenda was wanted for recruiting rebels opposed to the government.
(AP, 1/13/16)
2016 Jan 15, The UN said it has documented cases of Burundi's security forces gang-raping women during searches of opposition supporters' houses and heard witness testimony of mass graves.
(Reuters, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 18, In Burundi 3 people were killed late today in a grenade attack on a bar in Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 1/19/16)
2016 Jan 23, In Ethiopia UN Security Council ambassadors and African Union leaders met for crisis talks on Burundi, after the government refused a proposed AU force to stem violence in the troubled country.
(AFP, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 30, African leaders met in Addis Ababa in a bid to end armed crises, including in troubled Burundi, with an unprecedented vote on deploying a 5,000-strong peacekeeping force despite Burundi's vehement opposition.
(AFP, 1/30/16)
2016 Feb 3, A confidential report to the UN Security Council accused Rwanda of recruiting and training Burundian refugees with the goal of ousting Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(Reuters, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 12, Rwanda said it will send Burundian refugees to other countries, after the United States said that they were being recruited from camps to fight on behalf of the Burundian opposition.
(Reuters, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 13, In central Burundi two people loyal to the ruling party were "executed" overnight in Gacimbirigongo.
(AFP, 2/13/16)
2016 Feb 13, In Burundi a grenade attack late today on a military base in Bujumbura killed a child and wounded his father and one other person.
(Reuters, 2/14/16)
2016 Feb 15, Insurgents in Burundi hurled a series of grenades, killing a child and wounding at least 30 people in the latest in a string of attacks.
(AFP, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 21, In Burundi 2 people were killed late today in a gun attack in a bar.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, In Burundi one person had died and another was wounded in a grenade attack at a Bujumbura market just hours before the arrival of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who is trying to end the bloodshed over President Pierre Nkurunziza's disputed re-election.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 23, Burundi's president promised to hold talks, free prisoners and lift arrest warrants to try and end months of violence, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said after the two men met in the capital.
(Reuters, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 25, A delegation of five African heads of state arrived in Bujumbura at the start of a two-day visit to push for talks to end Burundi's deep political crisis.
(AFP, 2/25/16)
2016 Feb 27, The African Union said it will deploy rights observers and military monitors to violence-plagued Burundi following a visit to the country by five African leaders.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Mar 2, Former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa was named as the new mediator for talks to end a nearly year-long crisis in neighboring Burundi by the regional East African Community (EAC).
(AFP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 14, The European Union said it is suspending direct financial support for the Burundian government after concluding that it had not done enough to find a political solution to conflict that has so far cost more than 400 lives.
(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 22, In Burundi Maj. Didier Muhimpundu was killed after being shot several times in a bar in Bujumbura. Lieutenant Colonel Darius Ikurakure was shot dead by an assassin dressed in a military uniform inside the ministry compound in Bujumbura. The rebel group FOREBU, led by a former officer who launched an abortive coup, later claimed responsibility for the death of Ikurakure.
(AP, 3/23/16)(Reuters, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 30, In Burundi Jacques Bihozagara, a former Rwandan ambassador to France and Belgium and an ex-government minister, died in a jail where he was being held on suspicion of spying, adding to cross-border tensions that have increased dangerously in recent months. He had been held on espionage charges since December.
(Reuters, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 11, In Burundi gunmen killed at least 5 people and wounded seven when they opened fire on a market late today in the eastern Ruyigi region.
(AFP, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 13, In Burundi Phocas Bakaza, a member of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, was shot dead in Mutimbuza area near the capital Bujumbura. Two people were soon arrested in connection with the attack.
(AP, 4/14/16)
2016 Apr 14, A Burundi soldier was killed when an armed group attacked a military camp northwest of Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 4/14/16)
2016 Apr 15, Burundi announced that almost 700 soldiers were to be forced to retire. Almost all of them served in the army when it was an entirely Tutsi institution.
(Econ, 4/23/16, p.37)
2016 Apr 16, In Burundi 4 members of the country's ruling party were killed in an attack in continuing violence associated with the extended tenure of Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AP, 4/17/16)
2016 Apr 20, In Burundi gunmen ambushed Colonel Emmanuel Buzubona as he traveled on the back of a motorbike to his home in Bujumbura. Soldiers on patrol killed two people in a clash with an armed group in Kivumu village in Mugamba southern district, 60 km southeast of Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 25, In Burundi Athanase Kararuza, a Tutsi general and security advisor to the vice president, was killed in an attack by heavily-armed men, along with his wife and daughter in Bujumbura.
(AP, 4/25/16)
2016 Apr 25, In eastern Burundi nearly 30 schoolchildren and their supervisors were killed and many more injured when their truck crashed outside Musongati.
(AFP, 4/25/16)
2016 May 16, Rwanda officials said over 1,500 Burundians have been expelled in recent days, amid worsening relations between the neighbors.
(AFP, 5/16/16)
2016 May 24, In Burundi gunmen killed 3 people including a retired army colonel and a police chief, in continuing violence associated with Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza's extended time in power.
(AP, 5/25/16)
2016 Jun 2, The United States said it has sanctioned Burundi military commander Marius Ngendabanka, security official Ignace Sibomana and rebel leader Edouard Nshimirimana for engaging in actions or policies that threaten the peace, security or stability of the East African country.
(AP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Burundi Hafsa Mossi, a former minister in President Pierre Nkurunziza's government, was "shot by criminals" in Bujumbura. She was a member of the East African Legislative Assembly.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 29, The UN Security Council agreed to send a contingent of 228 United Nations police to Burundi to control the continuing violence and to protect human rights in the East African nation.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Burundi more than 1,000 people participated in a government-backed demonstration in the capital, Bujumbura, to protest France's proposal passed by UN Security Council to deploy UN police to the country.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Aug 2, Burundi said it would refuse to allow United Nations police onto its territory to monitor the security and human rights situation after the UN Security Council voted to send 228 officers.
(Reuters, 8/3/16)
2016 Nov 24, Burundi's government refused to cooperate with a UN inquiry into months of political violence, saying accusations of abuses by its officials were part of a political plot. The UN released a report by independent experts in September identifying government officials suspected of ordering political opposition to be tortured or killed.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 26, In Burundi thousands of people took part in street protests across the country in support of the government's opposition to United Nations investigators who are looking into alleged human rights abuses in the east African country.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Dec 22, Democratic Republic of Congo troops killed 10 soldiers from neighboring Burundi after they crossed the border overnight in pursuit of rebels.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 23, Burundi's parliament passed a law imposing strict controls on international non-governmental organizations after President Pierre Nkurunziza accused such groups of backing an insurrection against him.
(AFP, 12/24/16)
2017 Jan 1, In Burundi a gunman killed Emmanuel Niyonkuru (54), the country’s environment and water minister early today, the first senior government figure to be murdered in nearly two years of political violence.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Mar 13, Burundi’s health minister said about 700 people have died from malaria in Burundi so far this year. He said authorities have registered 1.8 million infections in a rising epidemic.
(AFP, 3/14/17)
2017 Mar 29, The UN said a malaria outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people in Burundi this year, a significant increase over the 700 cited by the country’s health ministry on March 13.
(SFC, 3/30/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 18, The UN rights chief condemned the feared youth wing of Burundi's ruling party for repeatedly calling for the rape and murder of opposition supporters. Human Rights Watch has accused the Imbonerakure of being involved in assaults on opposition members, gang-rapes of women and torture. The UN regularly refers to them as a militia.
(AFP, 4/18/17)
2017 May 17, In Burundi an unidentified man threw a grenade into a house in Bujumbura, killing three people believed to be members of the ruling party's youth wing.
(Reuters, 5/18/17)
2017 May 26, The Burundi government said unmarried couples have until the end of the year to legalize their relationships, as part of an effort to reform morals in the country.
(AFP, 5/26/17)
2017 Jun 15, Burundi denied UN allegations that said its security forces and government-allied militia are continuing to torture and kill opponents.
(AFP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jul 9, In Burundi a grenade attack late today killed eight people and wounded 50 others in a village in northern Kayanza province.
(Reuters, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 18, In Washington, DC, six teens from Burundi went missing while competing in an int’l. robotics competition. Two of them were seen crossing into Canada and foul play was not suspected.
(SFC, 7/22/17, p.A6)
2017 Aug 17, In Burundi grenade attacks on two bars killed at least three people and wounded 27 others in Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 8/18/17)
2017 Sep 4, UN investigators accused Burundi's government of crimes against humanity, including executions and torture, and urged the International Criminal Court to open a case "as soon as possible". Burundi formally announced it was withdrawing from the court, with the move set to take effect on October 27.
(AFP, 9/4/17)
2017 Sep 15, In eastern Congo DRC at least 36 Burundian refugees were killed in clashes with Congolese security forces in the town of Kamanyola over plans to send some of them home. One Congolese officer was killed. Congo's government spokesman Lambert Mende denied that those killed were refugees, saying that the clashes broke out when assailants from an unidentified armed group attacked an office belonging to the national intelligence agency.
(Reuters, 9/16/17)(SSFC, 9/17/17 p.A3)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Human Rights Council voted to extend the mission of an international probe into atrocities in Burundi, overriding strong pushback from the government accused of crimes against humanity.
(AFP, 9/29/17)
2017 Oct 24, Burundi's cabinet backed a constitutional change that would allow its president to stay in office until 2034, widening a political rift that has driven the country progressively deeper into crisis.
(Reuters, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 27, Burundi became the first country to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Officials said the court's prosecutor will move ahead with an examination of the East African nation's deadly political turmoil.
(AP, 10/27/17)
2017 Nov 9, The International Criminal Court (ICC) approved a prosecution request to investigate war crimes allegedly committed in Burundi by the government and government-linked groups against political foes from April 2015 to October 2017.
(Reuters, 11/9/17)
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A former Belgian colony with 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi people and 1% Twa.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A17)
1890 A conference in Brussels gave Rwanda and Burundi to the German Empire as colonial spheres of interest in exchange for renouncing all claims on Uganda.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rwanda)
1901 Feb 23, Britain and Germany agreed on a boundary between German East Africa [later Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi] and Nyasaland [later Malawi].
(HN, 2/23/98)(WUD, 1994, p.593,990)
1913 The MV Liemba, a 220-foot steamer, began its life in a shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, where it was named the Graf von Goetzen after German East Africa's former governor. It was dismantled, packed into 5,000 numbered crates, and shipped to Dar es Salaam and then taken by railway and porter to the shore of Lake Tanganyika where it was reassembled in 1915, armed with cannon, and put to work defending the waters against Belgian and British soldiers. It was scuttled and then dredged up by the Belgians but sank in a storm soon after. In 1921 Churchill ordered it recovered. In 1924 it was fished up and renamed MV Liemba, after the local name for the lake. It was put into service as a cargo and passenger ferry in 1927. It later inspired C.S. Forester’s novel "The African Queen" (1935).
(AFP, 5/12/15)(Econ, 2/4/17, p.39)
1923 The kingdoms of Ruanda and Urundi, a part of German East Africa, were conquered by British and Belgian troops during WWI, and became a Belgian mandate in 1923.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A12)(HNQ, 11/4/99)
1962 Jul 1, Burundi gained independence from Belgium. The UN trust territory of Ruanda-Urundi in east-central Africa was divided into the independent nations of Rwanda and Burundi.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A12)(http://africanscoutjamboree.org/en/history-of-burundi)
1972 The Tutsi-led government in Burundi killed some 100,000 Hutus.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A14)(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1977 The East African Community (EAC), founded in 1967, collapsed. In 2000 the regional club was resurrected with six members: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Community)(Econ, 6/11/16, p.51)
1987-1993 Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi paratrooper, became the military president of Burundi.
(SFC, 8/26/96, p.A4)
1993 Jun, Melchior Ndadaye was elected president in the first democratic election in Burundi.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)
1993 Oct 21, Burundi’s first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, was assassinated by Tutsi soldiers. 5 soldiers were sentenced to death for the murder in 1999. The military coup caused 525,000 Hutu's to flee. Civil war followed and over the next dozen years some 300,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E5)(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A12)(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi_presidential_election,_1993)(Econ, 4/16/11, p.65)
1993 Pierre Buyoya paved the way for Burundi elections and handed the presidency to Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, elected by the Hutu majority.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A9)
1994 Apr 6, The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed on a return trip from Tanzania in a mysterious plane crash near Kigali, Rwanda; widespread violence erupted in Rwanda over claims the plane had been shot down: Agatha Uwilingiyimana, Rwanda’s and Africa’s 1st female PM, Cyprian Niayamira (Ntaryamira), president of Burundi (1993-94) and Juvenal Habyarimana, president of Rwanda (1973) were killed along with the French aircrew. In Rwanda the Interhamwe, an extremist organization, and the Rwandan armed forces, FAR, launched a massacre of Tutsis and sympathizers that killed some 800,000. [see Aug 1, 1997] A French report in 2004 concluded that Paul Kagame, Tutsi rebel leader, was behind the crash. In 2010 a Rwandan government-commissioned inquiry said Rwandan Hutu soldiers shot down the Hutu president's plane and sparked the slaughter of more than 500,000 people. In 2012 a French judge determined that the missile fire that brought down the plane and sparked the Rwanda genocide came from a military camp, and not Tutsi rebels. This finding supported the theory that Habyarimana was killed by extremist members of his own ethnic Hutu camp.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)(AP, 4/6/99)(SFC, 2/11/04, p.A8)(AP, 1/12/10)(AFP, 1/11/12)
1994 Pres. Sylvestre Ntibantunganya took office in Burundi.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A17)
1994 Seven Rwandan refugee camps were created in Burundi and held some 250,000 people.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)
1995 Feb, Prime Minister Antoine Nduwayo took office in Burundi.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A17)
1996 Jan, The Burundi president warned that the country may be on the brink of a possible collapse due to fighting between the ethnic fanatics in the Hutu majority and the Tutsi-dominated army.
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-1)
1996 Jan, Tutsi militants closed down the Burundi capital in a general strike. They accused the president of backing massacres by Hutus after the killing of a predecessor in 1993.
(WSJ, 1/17/96, p.A-1)
1996 Apr, The Red Cross said more than 55,000 people have been driven from their homes by ethnic fighting that intensified last month. More than 100,000 have been killed since 1993 in the conflict between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis. The fighting occurred in the capital city of Bujumbura. 235 civilians died when the Burundi army attacked villages at Buhoro.
(WSJ, 4/5/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-8)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.C-12)
1996 May 3, A handwritten account reached the Burundi capital that described the massacre of 375 people at the Kivyuka village market by government soldiers angry over recent rebel attacks on local power line towers. An army spokesman denied the charges.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 16, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, the Burundi’s Hutu president, has called his army “paralyzed and useless" and given it a week to stop ethnic violence between Tutsi armed forces and Hutu rebels.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 30, Suspected Hutu rebels of the Council for the Defense of Democracy killed at least 61 and wounded 25 Tutsis in eastern Burundi.
(SFC, 5/31/96, A16)
1996 Jun 4, In Burundi 3 Swiss Red Cross workers were ambushed and killed while delivering supplies near the village of Mugina. The Tutsi-dominated Uprona Party denied any role and said the killings were the work of gangs of the Coalition for the Defense of Democracy, the main Hutu rebel group.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C16)(SFC, 6/6/96, p.C3)
1996 Jun 13, A Burundi army report claimed that 50 Hutu rebels were killed in an attack on a training camp.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A16)
1996 Jul 4, Unidentified gunmen killed 80 people in an attack on a tea factory 15 miles northeast of Bujumbura, Burundi.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 21, In Burundi Hutu rebels killed 320 Tutsis, mostly women and children, at a refugee camp 45 miles north of the capital.
(WSJ, 7/22/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 25, In Burundi the military seized power and named former president Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, as president. Hutu officials sought refuge in foreign embassies. Burundian Hutus fled to Zaire's South Kivu province, base of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy, an extremist Burundi Hutu movement backed by Zaire.
(WSJ, 7/26/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)
1996 Jul 26, UN sources said that 268 Hutu civilians were killed in Burundi’s Gitega province. The Tutsi army said Hutu rebels attacked a coffee factory in Giheta.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A8)
1996 Jul 27, In Burundi a Tutsi-led army killed at least 30 Hutu rebels in retaliation for an attack on a coffee plantation. Independent sources said that Hutus set fire to the factory and rice plantation in Giheta to justify a retaliatory attack on villages where Hutu rebels were thought to have taken refugees. Villagers said Tutsi soldiers massacred about 1,000 Hutus as they roamed from village to village in Gitega province.
(WSJ, 7/30/96, p.A1)(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 13, The last 2 commercial flights left Burundi as the outside world tightened sanctions to punish the new military regime.
(SFC, 8/14/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 20, In Burundi Pierre Buyoya sacked his army chief, Jean Bikomagu, who was implicated in the 1993 assassination of the first Hutu president Melchior Ndadaye. He also fired 2 more powerful military officers.
(WSJ, 8/21/96, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A9)(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E5)
1996 Aug 27, The last Rwandan refugee camp in Burundi closed.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug, After the Burundi coup of Jul 25, former Tanzanian Pres. Julius Nyerere led East African leaders to impose sanctions on Burundi and force Buyoya to restore democratic rule.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A9)
1996 Sep 3, Hutu guerrillas attacked an army garrison and local government headquarters in northern Burundi.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A10)
1996 Oct 21, In Murambi village, Burundi, some 300 (258-435) Hutu refugees returned from Zaire and were killed as they sought refuge in a village church.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A8)(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C2)
1997 Jan 5, In Burundi the Tutsi-led army attacked and killed hundreds of Hutus in a dispute over land at Bukeye in central Burundi.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 11, Soldiers shot and killed 126 Burundian Hutu refugees trying to break out of a holding camp in the northeast. Seven soldiers were arrested for the slayings.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb 21, It was reported that Burundi troops killed more than 150 civilians in reprisals for rebel attacks. 100 people were killed at Mugara and fifty near Maramvya.
(SFC, 2/22/96, p.A12)
1997 Apr 16, African leaders of 7 nations eased their embargo on Burundi to alleviate local suffering.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.A12)
1997 May 13, An outbreak of Typhus was reported in Burundi. Some 20,000 cases in 3 northwest provinces were reported by March, mostly in Hutu regroupment camps set up by the Tutsi-led military.
(WSJ, 5/13/97, p.A1)
1997 May 29, It was reported that the Tutsi-led army killed more than 40 Hutu rebels that included Hutu students kicked out of Bujumbura Univ. in 1995.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 1, A UN report from this day was made public in 2000 and cited Tutsi informants claiming that they helped to shoot down the airplane carrying Rwandan Pres. Juvanal Habyarimana on Apr 6, 1994.
(SFC, 3/2/00, p.A14)
1997 Oct 20, Soldiers of the Tutsi army packed 40 civilians into a rural school in the region of Kibezi and tossed a grenade inside. All were killed. Major Andre Nijongabo, a Burundi army commander, defended the incident claiming that the dead were “genocidal terrorists." Hutu rebels had burned 18 schools a week ago.
(SFC, 10/24/97, p.A11)
1997 Marie-Louise Sibazuri launched her Burundi radio drama "Our Neighbors Are Our Family." In 1998 she moved to Belgium and directed the program from there.
(WSJ, 3/16/00, p.A1)
1998 Jan 1, Some 1-2 thousand Hutu rebels attacked a Burundi military base and near the main airport and 150 civilians, 30 rebels and 2 soldiers were reported killed. Later reports said as many as 300 were killed and that the army had sealed up the area.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A14)(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A8)
1998 Jan 12, In Burundi Hutu rebels attacked army positions and at least 55 people were killed.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1988 Jan 21, In Burundi Hutu rebels killed 45 people in 2 attacks, and 20 rebels died in a subsequent battle with the army.
(WSJ, 1/22/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 28, Burundi Colonel Firmin Sinzoyiheba, the Tutsi minister of defense, was killed in a helicopter crash in the Gihinga Hills.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A11)
1998 Burundi military leader Pierre Buyoya was sworn in as president by the democratically elected parliament.
(SFC, 6/12/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 28, In Burundi 34 people were killed south of the capital.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)
1999 Jan 19, Rebels based in Tanzania killed 59 civilians in Makamba, Burundi. In Muresi Hill 76 civilians were killed.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)
1999 Jan 28, In Burundi officials reported that at least 178 civilians had been killed over the last 2 weeks in clashes between rebels and government troops.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)
1999 May 14, In Burundi 5 soldiers were sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of Pres. Melchior Ndadaye.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)
1999 Jul 16, In Burundi peace talks ended in a deadlock.
(SFC, 7/17/99, p.A14)
1999 Jul, Burundi government troops began herding Hutu farmers around Bujumbura into 58 makeshift camps to deprive rebels of support. Cholera, dysentery and malnutrition soon became rife in the camps.
(SFC, 1/3/00, p.A9)
1999 Aug 29, In Burundi Hutu militiamen attacked 2 neighborhoods outside Bujumbura and killed at least 26 civilians.
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.A14)
1999 Aug 31, It was reported that Bryan Rich of America and Alexis Sinduhije of Burundi, founders of the country's first independent news outlet, were making a documentary called "Breaking the Code," featuring interviews with Hutu and Tutsi participants in the 1993 slaughter.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A12)
1999 Sep 24, In Burundi the government reported that Hutu rebels had hacked to death 11 civilians in 2 separate attacks.
(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A14)
1999 Sep 26, In Nyambuye, Burundi, 30 people were killed in a Catholic church. Unidentified men in uniform opened fire while mostly Hutu worshipers prayed.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C14)
1999 Sep 28, It was reported that the Burundi army has recently forced over 200,000 villagers into makeshift camps without food or water and that 100 people had died over the past week.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C14)
1999 Oct 12, In Burundi Hutu rebels attacked a UN humanitarian convoy and killed 9 people at the Muzye refugee camp in Rutana.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A10)
1999 Nov 22, In Tanzania it was reported that some 500 people per day were fleeing into the country from Burundi as fighting in Burundi intensified.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec 1, African leaders chose Nelson Mandela as the new mediator for talks on ending the 6-year civil war in Burundi.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Dec 20, In Burundi Gabriel Gisabwamana, a Hutu member of parliament, was shot and killed by soldiers at a checkpoint after the 10 p.m. curfew.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.C11)
1999 Dec 31, Burundian soldiers killed at least 43 people including children in the Kabezi commune in Bujumbura Rural province.
(SFC, 1/800, p.A10)
2000 Jan 16, Nelson Mandela addressed peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, and admonished the leaders of Burundi for having failed their people and all of Africa.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 21, In Tanzania African presidents and European ministers appealed to Burundi's leaders to negotiate a swift end to the civil war.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A9)
2000 Mar 3, In Burundi the authorities under int'l. pressure began dismantling 6 of nearly 60 camps holding hundreds of thousands of Hutu civilians.
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.C1)
2000 Apr 25, In Burundi 66 people were reported killed in renewed fighting between Hutu rebels and government troops.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 7, Burundi Pres. Pierre Buyoya made concessions to end the 7-year war. He agreed to integrate the Tutsi-led army and to close down the regroupment camps by July 31.
(SFC, 6/8/00, p.C3)
2000 Jul 7, The East African Community (EAC), founded in 1967, was resurrected following its collapse in 1977. The regional club included six members: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. In 2005 members agreed on a customs union and in 2010 they agreed on a common market.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Community)(Econ, 6/11/16, p.51)
2000 Jul 22, In Burundi uniformed men killed 53 men, women and children in the village of Butaganzwa, when they refused to go to a government regroupment camp.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 6, In Burundi Hutu rebels ambushed a truck carrying military cadets and 28 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed near Nyabiraba village.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 28, Pres. Clinton stopped in Burundi where Tutsi minority parties refused to sign a deal with the Hutu majority. Clinton urged the parties to work for peace.
(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A6)
2000 Dec 28, Hutu rebels ambushed a commuter bus outside Bujumbura and killed 20 passengers.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A10)
2001 Apr 9, In Burundi villagers were caught in crossfire fighting between the army and Hutu rebels. 11-30 people were killed and thousands were forced to flee their homes.
(SFC, 4/12/01, p.C2)
2001 Apr 18, The Burundi army put down a coup attempt by junior officers opposed to Pres. Buyoya’s negotiations with Hutu rebels.
(SFC, 4/19/01, p.A11)
2001 Jun 3, It was reported the Burundi was poised for war due to conflicts between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A16)
2001 Jul 23, In Burundi Pres. Buyoya survived a coup attempt by Tutsi soldiers and sealed a power-sharing accord with Hutu politicians. The Arusha accord called for Buyoya to lead for 18 months followed by a Hutu president for another 18 months with elections to follow.
(WSJ, 7/24/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/01, p.A6)
2001 Sep 28, It was reported that clashed in Burundi between government forces and Hutu rebels had killed at least 19 civilians and 22 soldiers over the last week.
(SFC, 9/28/01, p.D6)
2001 Oct, Some 150 political exiles returned to participate in the 3-year transition to democracy. Some 700 South African soldiers massed in Bujumbura to help protect the exiles.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.C7)
2001 Nov 6, In Munini, Burundi, 24 civilians were reported dead from fighting between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi dominated army.
(SFC, 11/7/01, p.A16)
2001 Nov 9, Hutu rebels in Burundi abducted 80 teenage boys and 4 teachers from 3 schools in Ruyigi. Forced recruitment was believed to be the reason. Hundreds of youths escaped and at least 3 were left dead.
(WSJ, 11/8/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 7, Int’l. donors promised Burundi over $760 million for reconstruction and to fight AIDS. About 11.3% of the population was infected with HIV.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A7)
2001 Dec 25, Burundi Maj. Gen. Gahiro reported that 515 Hutu rebels and 28 soldiers had been killed in the Tenga region since Nov 26. He said fighting the area was liberated but that fighting continued.
(SFC, 12/26/01, p.A8)
2002 Jan 15, Fighting began in Burundi between the army and Hutu rebels. At least 60 people were dead after a week.
(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 19, In Burundi fighting between the Tutsi dominated army and Hutu rebels forced over 16,000 people from their homes over the last 2 days.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 4, National Liberation Forces rebels, one of 2 rebel Hutu groups, attacked military positions near Bujumbura and caused thousands of people to flee the area.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A13)
2002 Jun 11, More than 40 Burundian refugees returning home from Tanzania after years in exile died when the truck carrying them overturned, an official said.
(AP, 6/12/02)
2002 Jun 21, In Burundi a court has sentenced 11 people to death and 16 others to life imprisonment for taking part in massacres that followed the 1993 assassination of Burundi's first democratically elected leader.
(AP, 6/21/02)
2002 Jun 27, Burundian rebels said they had repelled a major government offensive against bases in the Kibera National Park, saying 35 government soldiers had been killed in five day of fighting.
(AP, 6/27/02)
2002 Jul 26, The Burundian army claimed it has killed at least 500 Hutu rebels during fighting over the last two weeks, while suffering only 15 losses.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Aug 30, In Burundi the army reportedly killed 48 Hutu rebels in clashes outside Bujumbura.
(SFC, 9/5/02, p.A11)
2002 Sep 9, In Burundi 183 civilians were killed by uniformed men in an area of heavy fighting between government troops and rebels. On Sep 18 the government promised an investigation.
(AP, 9/18/02)
2002 Oct 7, In Burundi 2 smaller factions of the main rebel movements signed a cease-fire aimed at ending the 9-year civil war.
(AP, 10/8/02)
2002 Nov 2, In Burundi at least 15,000 people have fled their homes as fighting between the army and rebels escalated despite peace talks.
(AP, 11/2/02)
2002 Nov 22, Burundi's largest rebel faction launched a mortar attack on Bujumbura from the surrounding hills, causing thousands of residents to flee their homes in the northern part of the city.
(AP, 11/22/02)
2002 Dec 3, In Burundi Pres. Pierre Buyoya and Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the main faction of the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, or FDD, agreed to a cease-fire in their 9-year civil war (effective Dec 30), in theory leaving only one rebel group fighting in a conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people.
(AP, 12/3/02)
2003 Jan 15, In Burundi 2 weeks of fighting between the Tutsi-dominated army and two rebel groups has displaced more than 30,000 people in two provinces.
(AP, 1/15/03)
2003 Mar 22, Burundi's hardline Hutu rebel group expressed satisfaction with its first round of peace talks in Switzerland.
(AP, 3/22/03)
2003 Mar 26, The Burundian army attacked a rebel stronghold in a Kibira forest with mortars and artillery, killing 68 insurgents. Rebels said only 2 fighters were killed.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Apr 2, Burundi said Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa will send 3,500 peacekeepers to enforce a truce ending nearly 10 years of civil war.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 8, In Burundi battles started between the Tutsi-dominated army and the rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy, or FDD, after the army tried to intercept insurgents moving into Gitega province. More than 6,000 people fled their homes in response.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Burundi a mortar shell apparently fired from rebel positions in the hills northwest of Bujumbura crashed into a house, killing three children and wounding a woman and another child. The latest fighting has forced 50,000 people to flee their homes.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 30, Burundi's Tutsi minority handed over the presidency to Domitien Ndayizeye of the Hutu majority as part of the peace process aimed at ending 9 1/2 years of civil war.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 May 11, The Burundi army killed 23 Hutu rebels during fighting in central Burundi, but the insurgents claimed the dead were civilians.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Burundi Hutu rebels fought their way into part of the capital, trading gun, mortar and grenade fire with the Tutsi-dominated army. Thousands fled their homes.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 10, In Burundi recent fighting left an estimated 170 people killed according to a UN estimate. 6,000 to 7,000 others had been forced to flee their homes.
(AP, 7/12/03)
2003 Sep 21, The latest outbreak of fighting between Hutu rebels and the army in Burundi's decade-long civil war has killed at least 12 people on the outskirts of Bujumbura.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2003 Oct 27, In Burundi fighting between government soldiers and Hutu rebels has forced more than 5,000 people to flee their homes in the hills surrounding the capital of Bujumbura.
(AP, 10/28/03)
2003 Nov 2, Burundi's president and main rebel leader signed a peace agreement, but efforts to end the decade-long civil war were threatened by renewed fighting between Tutsi-dominated government troops and other Hutu rebels.
(AP, 11/2/03)
2003 Nov 3, It was reported from Burundi that a decade of civil war as well as fighting in neighboring Congo had decimated the once 300-strong herd of hippos whose habitat is the marshy Ruzizi River that flows from the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. In August, the World Wildlife Fund warned that 185 miles to the north, only 1,300 hippos of the 29,000 recorded 30 years ago remained in and around Lake Edward.
(AP, 11/3/03)
2003 Nov 10, In Burundi Hutu rebels bombarded the capital with rockets, killing 5 people, destroying part of the Chinese Embassy and striking the home of a U.S. military attache.
(AP, 11/10/03)
2003 Nov 16, Burundi's government signed a comprehensive power-sharing plan with the Hutu FDD, country's largest rebel group, a major step toward ending a 10-year war that has killed at least 200,000 people.
(AP, 11/16/03)(Econ, 8/14/04, p.44)
2003 Nov 19, Rebel holdouts in Burundi clashed with government troops in a capital slum, killing 11 people, mainly noncombatants caught in the crossfire.
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Dec 22, An international human rights group criticized a peace agreement giving soldiers and rebels temporary immunity from prosecution for atrocities committed against civilians in Burundi's 10-year civil war.
(AP, 12/22/03)
2003 Dec 29, In Burundi gunmen killed Monsignor Michael Courtney, the pope's ambassador, firing on his car as he was returning from a funeral.
(AP, 12/29/03)
2003 Dec, In Burundi the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), the biggest Hutu rebel group, joined Burundi's transitional government. FNL rebels under Agathon Rwasa (39) continued to lob mortar shells into Bujumbura.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.41)
2004 Jan 12, In Burundi Hutu rebels killed 17 people, including five soldiers, in attacks northwest of Bujumbura over the last 2 days.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Feb 24, An earthquake shook Burundi, killing three people and destroying at least two dozen homes.
(AP, 2/24/04)
2004 Aug 13, The FNL, a Burundian Hutu rebel faction, raided Gatumba camp, a UN refugee camp in western Burundi, shooting and hacking to death 160 people. The camp sheltered Congolese ethnic Tutsi refugees, known as the Banyamulenge.
(AP, 8/14/04)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.37)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.44)
2004 Nov 18, The UN Security Council opened an extraordinary two-day session in Nairobi, the first outside its New York headquarters in 14 years. Sudan topped the agenda. Great Lakes regional foreign ministers approved a pact for greater cross-border cooperation and confidence-building. It was due to be adopted at a summit in Dar es Salaam.
(AP, 11/18/04)(AP, 11/19/04)
2004 Nov 19, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged leaders of Africa's blood-soaked Great Lakes region to implement a peace plan that could herald a "new era" for millions of Africans.
(AP, 11/19/04)
2004 Burundi created a national army out of former army and seven former rebel movements.
(AFP, 10/22/11)
2005 Feb 28, Burundians voted on a new constitution that enshrines Hutu control by allotting them 60% of parliamentary seats with 40% for Tutsis.
(WSJ, 3/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 13, Burundi began forced repatriation of thousands of Rwandan refugees, who feared reprisals at home. The UN condemned the action.
(WSJ, 6/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 4, Burundi's main Hutu ex-rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), won a comfortable victory in legislative elections, taking 58.23% of the vote.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Aug 19, Pierre Nkurunziza (40), a former Hutu rebel leader, was chosen by lawmakers as Burundi's president, culminating an internationally mediated effort that hopes to bring peace to a central African nation wrecked by a dozen years of ethnic war. Burundi’s 12-year civil war left as many as 300,000 people dead.
(AP, 8/20/05)(Econ, 3/29/14, p.50)
2005 Sep 19, Classrooms and chairs were scarce at crowded Burundian primary schools as 500,000 children, nearly double last year's enrollment, showed up for the first day of classes following the elimination of fees.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Dec 31, A first group of UN peacekeepers from Mozambique left Burundi as part of a phased withdrawal of troops that will end in December next year.
(AFP, 12/31/05)
2006 Jan 1, East African leaders said that millions of people in the region faced hunger because poor rains had affected vital crops and pasture. Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania faced acute food shortages.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 5, The UN said around 2,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees have arrived in Burundi in the past month, many saying they feel insecure in Rwanda or are being refused permission to cultivate their land.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Feb 27, In Burundi a government official acknowledged that rogue soldiers and police officers have executed and tortured suspected rebels and civilians.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 May 29, Burundi's only hold-out rebel group began talks with the government in an effort to end the central African country's 12-year civil war.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 Jun 17, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza left to sign a cease-fire agreement with the country's last rebel group in neighboring Tanzania as his government works toward ending a 12-year conflict.
(AP, 6/18/06)
2006 Jun 18, Burundi's government and the country's last rebel group agreed, while meeting in Tanzania, to end hostilities and sign a comprehensive cease-fire deal in two weeks.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 30, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to conclude its peacekeeping mission in Burundi on Dec. 31 and replace it with a UN office to help promote development and democracy in the central African nation.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Aug 6, In Burundi gunmen hurled a grenade at a bar frequented by army officers, killing four people. Authorities said the attack was an attempt to undermine the government.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 21, Burundi police arrested former President Domitien Ndayizeye, apparently in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the tiny central African country's government.
(Reuters, 8/21/06)
2006 Sep 5, Burundi Vice-President Alice Nzomukunda resigned over corruption and human rights abuses that she says are hampering her nation's progress.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5316690.stm)
2006 Sep 7, Burundi's government and the country's last rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL) signed a permanent cease-fire as the central African nation emerges from 12 years of civil war.
(AP, 9/7/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.57)
2006 Oct 17, The United States said it plans to take in about 10,000 Burundian refugees from Tanzania, many of whom fled their landlocked nation as far back as 1972.
(Reuters, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 25, A rights group said Burundi's spy agency has executed 38 people and arbitrarily detained 200 others since the Central African nation's new government came to power. New York-based Human Rights Watch accused President Pierre Nkurunziza’s year-old government of failing to prosecute those accused of extra-judicial killings.
(AP, 10/25/06)
2006 Nov 30, The East African Community (EAC) said Rwanda and Burundi have been accepted as members, expanding the regional economic bloc to five nations. The EAC previously grouped Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, which hoped to transform the region into a political federation.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Kenya 11 African heads of state attending the 2nd International Conference on the Great Lakes Region signed a landmark $2 billion (1.5-billion-euro) security and development pact to forestall fresh violence in the area.
(AFP, 12/15/06)
2007 Jan 20, The UN’s food agency said some 800,000 Burundians face a serious food crisis after devastating floods ravaged several regions of the tiny central African nation.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Feb 26, The World Vision humanitarian group said that more than 50% of children in refugee camps around Africa's volatile Great Lakes area have experienced some form of sexual abuse. The data, collected in camps in the Burundi, Congo (DRC), Tanzania, northern Uganda and Rwanda, said widespread poverty made children vulnerable to abuses.
(AFP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 28, Burundi said that it will send 1,700 peacekeepers to Somalia as part of an 8,000-strong African Union force, while the first Ugandan contingent prepared to leave for the war-torn nation.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 15, Human Rights Watch released a report that said Children in Burundi suffer serious abuses in prison, including torture, rape and food shortages, in a criminal justice system that treats them as adults.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 18, The UN said a first group of Congolese refugees, who escaped a 2004 massacre at a camp in Burundi, left for the US to start a program to resettle more than 500 people.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Apr 18, Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda adopted a joint military strategy to fight rebel groups operating in the war-scarred Great Lakes region.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 May 18, A group of 88 Burundians who have lived as refugees in neighboring Tanzania for up to 35 years became the first of some 8,500 to head to the US for a new life.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 23, The UN human rights commissioner said that Burundi has agreed to set up a tribunal to try people suspected of genocide and war crimes during its 12-year civil war.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 25, In Burundi 61 countries and international organizations promised 656 million dollars (488 million euros) during a donors' roundtable in the capital Bujumbura. The World Bank considers Burundi, where 70% of the population lives below the poverty line, the world's third-poorest nation.
(AFP, 5/25/07)
2007 Jun 19, President Jakaya Kikwete said Tanzania will shut camps housing 150,000 refugees from Burundi by the end of this year as the war in the neighbouring central African country is over.
(AFP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jul 21, Jean Berchmans Ndayshimiye, the military leader of Burundi's last rebel group (FNL), escaped back to the bush, sparking fears of renewed civil conflict.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul, Rwanda and Burundi became members of the East African Community (EAC), which included Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 11/17/07)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.52)
2007 Aug 19, Simultaneous grenade attacks were launched on the homes of five Burundian politicians who recently criticized the president, injuring three but failing to harm the targets.
(AFP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 28, Africa's Great Lakes nations (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda) vowed to eliminate rebel groups roaming their territory and spurring insecurity in the continent's most volatile region.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Sep 11, Six Congolese soldiers were detained by the Burundian navy for repeatedly attacking fishing boats on Lake Tanganyika and stealing their catch.
(AFP, 9/12/07)
2007 Oct 16, Burundi's last active rebel group said it will shun a weekend meeting to put the central African nation's derailed peace process back on track as the South African mediator was biased.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 20, Burundi's last active rebel group was urged to implement a 2006 ceasefire as it boycotted a meeting aimed to put the central African nation's derailed peace process back on track.
(AFP, 10/20/07)
2007 Nov 14, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza announced a new unity cabinet drawing members from two leading opposition groups in a bid to end months of political deadlock in the troubled African nation.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 14, The EU reached an accord with the East African Community (EAC) states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. They will enjoy duty free, quota free access to the EU for all products, except sugar and rice, from January 1. Originally established in 1967, the EAC collapsed a decade later amid diverging economic philosophies. It was resurrected in 2000 as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda agreed to create an EU-style common market for their 90 million citizens. Rwanda and Burundi became members in July this year.
(AP, 11/17/07)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.52)
2007 Dec 23, In Somalia a first contingent of 100 Burundian peacekeepers deployed in the capital, joining 1,800 Ugandan troops in an African Union force, AMISOM, that is still well short of the personnel strength needed to help restore order. Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles attacked an Ethiopian army base in northern Mogadishu, triggering a deadly nighttime clash that sent stray mortar rounds crashing into homes. At least five Somalis were killed and eight wounded in the crossfire.
(AP, 12/23/07)(AFP, 10/22/11)
2007 Dec 24, In southwestern Somalia gunmen threw grenades at the home of the regional police chief, killing two of his grandchildren and a bodyguard but not their target. Burundi deployed a 2nd contingent of 92 peacekeepers to Mogadishu, to bolster an African Union force.
(AP, 12/24/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2008 Jan 20, The final 210 members of the first battalion of Burundian soldiers to be deployed in Somalia as part of an African Union peace-keeping force left Bujumbura for Mogadishu. Burundi is expected to deploy a total of 1,700 soldiers in Somalia, alongside around 1,600 troops from Uganda who have been in the capital Mogadishu since March.
(AFP, 1/20/08)
2008 Mar 14, Five Burundi insurgents and a government soldier were killed in a clash with the army in the north of the war-wracked central African country's capital.
(AFP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 18, The World Food Program (WFP) made a six million dollar appeal to feed some 90,000 Burundian refugees in Tanzania who expect to return to the central African country in 2008.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Apr 17, In Burundi suspected rebels attacked the capital, Bujumbura. A series of attacks killed at least 17 people.
(AP, 4/18/08)(WSJ, 4/19/08, p.A1)
2008 May 18, In Burundi as the government and rebels sought unsuccessfully to reach agreement in negotiations to reinstate a 2006 ceasefire deal, the army attacked National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebel positions south of Bujumbura.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 25, Burundian officials said the army killed three rebels near the capital over the weekend, the latest in a series of violent clashes in the central African nation.
(AFP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 26, Burundi's government and last active rebel group signed an unconditional ceasefire agreement, raising hopes of a definitive end to the small central African nation's 15-year civil war.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 30, Agathon Rwasa, the exiled leader of Burundi's last rebel group, returned to the capital to begin implementing a stalled deal seen as the final obstacle to peace in the tiny central African country.
(Reuters, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 8, Burundi's top rebel leader and the government's chief negotiator pledged to work to end 15 years of civil war as they arrived in South Africa for talks on the country's peace process.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jul 16, The United States signed a pair of agreements to boost trade and investment ties with countries in southern and eastern Africa. These included the Trade, Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement with the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU), which includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland; and the Trade Investment and Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the East African Community, which includes Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Oct 14, Burundi said it has completed its deployment of another 850 soldiers to Somalia, bringing to about 3,400 the total number of African Union peacekeepers stationed there. Burundi had already deployed some 850 soldiers to Somalia as part of AMISOM (African mission in Somalia).
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 16, Around one million Burundian children under the age of five suffer chronic malnutrition, the UN food agency announced as it marked World Food Day in the tiny central African nation.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Nov 17, In Somalia witnesses said African Union (AU) peacekeepers from Burundi have started moving into positions usually manned by Ethiopian troops in the capital Mogadishu, as part of the ongoing Djibouti peace process.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 22, Burundi's parliament adopted a new set of laws abolishing the death penalty for the first time in the troubled central African country.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Dec 2, A Burundi soldier serving with African Union forces in Somalia was killed in fighting with Islamist insurgents in the war-torn capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Burundi a summit was held in Bujumbura stating the position of the Great Lakes region on the implementation of the peace agreements signed at the Dar es Salaam summit of 2006 in Tanzania.
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200812040216.html)
2009 Jan 2, In Burundi an 8-year-old albino boy was hacked to death in front of his mother and made off with his arms and legs. The body parts of a single albino, to be used in witch doctor potions, fetched about $1000. This attack followed another on a 6-year-old girl.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.50)
2009 Mar 13, In Burundi an albino man was murdered and dismembered overnight by suspected smugglers with links to Tanzanian witch doctors, the fourth such case in a month in the central African nation.
(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Jul 24, Burundi army officials said 3 of its soldiers serving with African Union peacekeepers in Somalia have died of a mysterious illness in a Kenyan hospital where more than 10 others are being treated.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Aug 1, Burundi said it has deployed a third battalion of 850 soldiers to Mogadishu to reinforce the African Union peacekeeping mission there. With the new troops, more than 5,000 soldiers from Burundi and Uganda are now taking part in the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which began in March 2007 and has cost the lives of 17 Burundian soldiers.
(AFP, 8/2/09)
2009 Oct 5, In Burundi 2 days of clashes began as government forces fired live rounds in the air to deter hundreds of Congolese refugees from returning home. Some 900 refugees had decided to return home on foot rather than be transferred to a new camp further away from the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 23, Somali Islamist rebels threatened to attack the capitals of Burundi and Uganda, the two central African countries that have deployed peacekeeping troops to prop up Somali's transitional government.
(AFP, 10/23/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Tanzania members of the East Africa Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda) signed a common market agreement in Arusha, headquarters of the EAC.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/21/content_12513712.htm)
2009 Nov 30, Interpol and the Kenya Wildlife Service said African authorities over the last 3 months had raided shops, intercepted vehicles at checkpoints and used sniffer dogs to detect and seize over 3,800 pounds (1,768kg) of illegal elephant ivory in a six-nation operation. This involved the wildlife authorities, police and customs departments of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 30, In Burundi the last South African soldiers from the African Union Special Task Force still operating in Burundi completed their mission and left the country for good to return to South Africa.
(AFP, 12/31/09)
2010 Mar 4, In Rwanda 2 grenade blasts wounded 16 people in the capital, in the second wave of grenade attacks to hit Kigali in two weeks. On March 6 authorities said Deo Mushayidi, a former member of the then rebel group Rwandan Patriotic Front that ended the 1994 genocide, was arrested in neighboring Burundi. The government has also accused two former senior army officers now exiled in South Africa of being behind the attacks.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 May 3, In Burundi attackers chopped off the limbs of a 5-year-old albino boy and pulled out his mother's eye, killing them over the belief that their body parts would bring wealth and success. Ten assailants armed with guns and grenades killed Desire Vyegura (5) and his mother, Susann Vyegura. Thoma Vyegura, who was not albino, was also killed while trying to protect his daughter and grandson.
(AP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 19, The Burundian government said in a statement that it had given Neela Ghoshal, a Human Rights Watch researcher, until June 5 to leave the country. Burundi is due to hold its first round of elections after nearly 16 years of civil war May 23. Presidential polls are scheduled for June 28.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 24, Burundians turned out in droves to vote in local polls marking the first phase of an electoral marathon, the first of a series of polls in which the tiny African nation will also vote for representatives to parliament and its next president.
(AFP, 5/24/10)
2010 Jun 1, In Burundi 5 presidential candidates in upcoming elections said they're withdrawing from the race because of rigged voting. The candidates announced their withdrawal following a May 24 vote that opposition parties said were rigged by the ruling party, which received 64 percent of votes. Four rounds of voting remain.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 4, Burundi's main Tutsi party followed five opposition parties in pulling out from the central African nation's June presidential poll, leaving serving leader Pierre Nkurunziza as the sole candidate.
(AFP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 21, In Burundi the president of the ruling party's youth league was assassinated by unknown gunmen.
(AFP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 22, In Burundi 2 people were reported killed and several wounded overnight in the latest spate of attacks to rock the East African nation amid a tense electoral crisis.
(AFP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 27, Burundi's police overnight arrested six senior officials from an opposition party, as the troubled central African nation prepared for a controversial presidential election.
(AFP, 6/27/10)
2010 Jun 28, Burundi began voting for a president. Incumbent Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza was the lone candidate.
(AP, 6/28/10)
2010 Jun 30, In Burundi politicians boycotting the elections dismissed the results as a sham.
(SFC, 7/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 2, It was reported that grenade attacks in Burundi have killed 8 people and wounded almost 50 over the last month.
(WSJ, 7/2/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 22, Burundi was labeled as the most corrupt country in East Africa in a survey by Transparency International. Rwanda was found to be the least corrupt among the five countries in the region.
(AP, 7/22/10)
2010 Aug 26, Interpol said police have seized about 10 metric tons of counterfeit medicines and arrested 80 people in a sweep across eastern Africa. Authorities across Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar took part in the bust.
(Reuters, 8/26/10)
2010 Sep 24, Agathon Rwasa, a former rebel chief in Burundi, appealed by letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon to intervene and prevent the east African nation from falling again into violent conflict. Rwasa headed the ex-rebel National Liberation Forces, which became a political party in 2009 after a peace deal ended Burundi's 13-year civil war.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Nov 19, In the Republic of Congo 8 countries signed a convention to limit the spread of weapons in central Africa, but three countries opted out. Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, The Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe all signed. Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda did not sign.
(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Some 100,000 Twa pygmies remained in the Great Lakes region of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and CongoDRC. Most of them were barred from their ancestral forests including the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, which was turned into a national park in 1991.
(Econ, 9/25/10, SR p.11)
2010 Burundi’s population stood at about 9 million. Tax revenues were around $9 million.
(Econ, 7/24/10, p.48)
2011 Mar 4, Two Nairobi-based diplomats said at least 43 Burundian and 10 Ugandan troops have been killed in Somalia since Feb. 18. A major offensive against Islamist militants began on Feb 19.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 14, Burundi said it has deployed an additional 1,000 soldiers for the African Union force protecting the Somali government.
(AFP, 3/14/11)
2011 Jul 1, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza appealed for the first time to opposition leaders in exile to return home and begin a dialogue, in a speech to mark the country's independence.
(AFP, 7/2/11)
2011 Jul 4, In Burundi an armed gang raided two police posts in Bujumbura and dropped leaflets saying they were members of a rebel group called FRONABU-Tabara (Burundi National Front). Four suspects were arrested.
(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 15, In Burundi lawyer Suzanne Bukuru was arrested and imprisoned for helping French journalists get an interview with victims she is representing in a rape trial involving a Frenchman Patrice Faye (58). On July 25 lawyers in Burundi announced a week-long strike in protest at the arrest of Bukuru for "complicity in espionage."
(AFP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 19, In Burundi at least nine people died in clashes between unidentified "armed gangsters" and security forces in northwest Cibitoke province. Two soldiers, a police officer and six "gangsters" were among the dead.
(AFP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 25, A court in Burundi found Frenchman Patrice Faye (58) guilty of raping five teenagers, giving him a 25-year jail sentence and a fine of 14,000 euros ($20,000). Faye was accused of raping five girls aged 13 to 17, students at a school he set up for poor children. He denied the charges and said a doctor had confirmed that three of his accusers were still virgins.
(AFP, 7/25/11)
2011 Aug 11, Burundi and South Africa signed several cooperation deals including in defense, education and agriculture during Pres. Zuma's visit to the central African country.
(AFP, 8/11/11)
2011 Sep 2, In Somalia Malaysian cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd Nor was killed in Mogadishu by 4 Burundi peacekeepers. The 4 were later discharged from the force and faced trial in Burundi.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 16, Burundi opposition leader Agathon Rwasa, suspected to be behind a spate of violent incidents, accused state security forces of massacring and torturing his supporters.
(AFP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 18, In Burundi armed men burst into a pub in Gatumba. One wounded man said an attacker yelled: "Make sure there's no survivors." Survivor Jackson Kabura said the men entered wearing military fatigues. The bar shooting left 39 people dead. The accused later claimed the massacre's "sponsors" were top security official General Maurice Mbonimpa, deputy police chief General Gervais Ndirakobuca and the commander of a special police unit, Colonel Desire Uwamahoro.
(AP, 9/19/11)(AFP, 9/23/11)(AFP, 12/13/11)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.60)
2011 Oct 20, In Somalia pro-government forces supported by foreign troops chased al-Shabab out of Mogadishu’s northernmost neighborhood, Deynile, in a dawn offensive. Al-Qaida-linked militants claimed to have killed 70 foreign African Union peacekeepers but an eyewitness said many of the bodies put on display were likely Somali government soldiers. An AU spokesman the next day said that the insurgents had stolen uniforms and dressed up scores of their own dead. The AU said 10 soldiers were killed, including 6 from Burundi, with two missing after intense fighting with insurgents. A week later it was reported that 51 Burundian soldiers were killed in the clash.
(AP, 10/20/11)(AP, 10/21/11)(AFP, 10/22/11)(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Nov 21, Burundi security forces shot dead 18 "armed bandits" in clashes in the eastern province of Cankuzo, part of a new rebellion based in Ruvubu National Park.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, A Burundi rights group, the Government Action Observatory (OAG), said government-backed death squads have killed more than 300 members of a former rebel group and opposition supporters in covert operations over the past five months.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 27, Gunmen in Burundi murdered Sister Luckrecija Mamic, a Croatian nun, and an Italian charity worker in an apparent botched robbery and kidnapping. Sister Carla Brianza was later shot dead while Sister Carla Brianza, an Italian nun, fought off her attackers and escaped with relatively minor wounds. Two men, aged 20 and 24, were arrested for the attack after a shootout.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Burundi told delegates at a global anti-landmine summit in Phnom Penh that it had cleared its territory of landmines, becoming the 18th state party to do so. Myanmar was the only country recorded as laying new landmines last year, but the Intl. Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said it has since been joined by Israel, Syria and Libya, bringing the current global use of landmines to its highest level since 2004.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2012 Jan 11, Alexis Sinduhije, the head of Burundi’s opposition Movement for Solidarity and Development, a former journalist, was arrested in Tanzania upon his arrival there from Uganda. On Jan 21 Burundi admitted that it had asked for the exiled Burundian opposition leader to be arrested in Tanzania and extradited to face murder charges.
(AFP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 21, Burundi admitted that it had asked for an exiled Burundian opposition leader to be arrested in Tanzania and extradited to face murder charges. Alexis Sinduhije, the head of the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Development, a former journalist, was arrested in Tanzania's economic capital Dar es Salaam on January 11 upon his arrival there from Uganda.
(AFP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 24, Tanzanian police freed Burundian opposition leader Alexis Sinduhije, who was arrested two weeks ago in Dar es Salaam at Burundi's request. Sinduhije was expelled to Uganda.
(AFP, 1/24/12)
2012 May 2, Burundi blocked Human Rights Watch from holding a press conference to release a report on the country's political violence, which it blamed on state agents and armed opposition groups.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 5, In Burundi an armed gang kidnapped, killed and dismembered overnight an albino girl (15) in Burundi's 18th such slaying in less than four years. Albinos Sans Frontieres said the government was failing to protect albinos and said everyone sentenced to prison in the killings had escaped.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 Jun 20, A Burundian court sentenced journalist Hassan Ruvakuki and 13 others to life in prison on terrorism charges for a November attack launched from across the Tanzanian border, a ruling criticized by media watchdogs.
(AFP, 6/20/12)
2012 Jun 27, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza pardoned "several thousand" prisoners in order to address prison overcrowding and celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence on July 1. Eloge Niyonzima, a journalist for a private radio station in Bubanza, was beaten up overnight by members of the ruling party's youth wing militia.
(AFP, 6/27/12)
2012 Jul 24, Burundi's anti-corruption court sentenced Faustin Ndikumana, an anti-graft activist, to five years in jail for "false declarations." Ndikumana was arrested February 7 after writing a letter in which he said candidates for the post of judge in Burundi had to pay a bribe, and that the justice minister was in part responsible for this state of affairs.
(AFP, 7/24/12)
2012 Jul 26, The UN's food agency said 10 Central African countries have agreed to take part in a regional initiative to monitor the Congo Basin, one of the world's largest primary rainforests. They included Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.
(AFP, 7/26/12)
2013 Sep 12, A UN official said at least 25,000 Burundian refugees living in Tanzania have been forcibly repatriated over the past month, describing a "dramatic" humanitarian situation.
(AFP, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 13, Burundi opened an investigation into claims that a former ethnic Hutu rebel leader ordered the massacre of Congolese refugees in an attack almost a decade ago. The Banyamulenge, an ethnic Tutsi tribe from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, in August accused Agathon Rwasa of ordering the killing of 166 Banyamulenge seeking refuge inside a camp in Burundi in 2004.
(Reuters, 9/13/13)
2013 Nov 10, Burundi officials said police have discovered dozens of human skulls during a search of the home of an Italian expatriate. Giuseppe Favaro, has been in custody since late October after he was caught trying to export two skulls to Thailand.
(AFP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 30, Five east African countries signed a protocol to establish a monetary union, in a first step towards creating a single currency. At a summit in Kampala, leaders from Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda inked the framework to set up a single market modelled after the eurozone.
(AFP, 11/30/13)
2013 Dec 9, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the US military to transport troops from Burundi into the Central African Republic to help quell the latest upsurge in violence there.
(AP, 12/10/13)
2014 Jan 28, Burundi's top lawyer, Isidore Rufyikiri, was sacked after criticizing the government and being accused of urging the people to rebel.
(AFP, 1/29/14)
2014 Feb 10, In Burundi at least 60 people perished in flooding and landslides following a night of torrential rain in Bujumbura that swept away hundreds of homes and cut off roads and power.
(AFP, 2/10/14)
2014 Feb 11, The Burundi Red Cross said torrential rains and landslides have left at least 77 people dead and about 12,000 displaced.
(Reuters, 2/11/14)
2014 Mar 8, In Burundi violent clashes in Bujumbura pitted opposition Movement for Solidarity and Development activists against police. 21 MSD activists were arrested.
(AFP, 3/16/14)(Econ, 3/29/14, p.50)
2014 Mar 10, A Burundian official said South Africa has expelled a diplomat from Burundi's embassy in connection with a raid on an exiled Rwandan general's Johannesburg home and Burundi is considering a response.
(Reuters, 3/10/14)
2014 Mar 12, Burundi charged opposition leader Alexis Sinduhije, who is on the run from police, and 71 party supporters with rebellion following March 8 clashes.
(AFP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 21, Burundi sentenced 21 activists from a key opposition party to life in jail for "armed revolt" after a jogging protest earlier this month turned into violent clashes with police.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Apr 17, Burundi’s ruling CNDD-FDD party voted to create a reconciliation commission. Opposition parties boycotted the vote saying it will shield the ruling party from accountability for past crimes.
(Reuters, 4/18/14)
2014 May 11, China signed a deal with East African leaders to build a $3.8 billion rail link between Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Nairobi, the first stage of a line that will eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
(AFP, 5/11/14)
2014 Jul 2, African nations agreed to suspend military operations for six months against Congo-based Rwandan rebels in order to give them more time to lay down their arms. The suspension was announced after a meeting in Angola of foreign ministers from a regional bloc including Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, DRC, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul, On the Burundi-Rwanda border corpses started coming with rotting bodies and bound limbs or stuffed in sacks, floating on the glittering waters of Lake Rweru. Fishermen report seeing as many as 40 bodies. In 2006 the bodies of Burundian opponents murdered in political violence were thrown into various rivers in the country.
(AP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 8, The Italian foreign ministry said 3 missionary nuns have been found slain in their convent in Burundi.
(SFC, 9/9/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 20, Burundi's National Intelligence Service detained Brice Nzohabonayo in the capital Bujumbura shortly after his brother Bertrand Nzohabonayo attacked a police station in Joue-les-Tours, France.
(AFP, 12/22/14)
2015 Jan 1, In Burundi a group of unidentified rebels crossed into the country overnight from DRCongo's eastern Kivu region.
(AfP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, A Burundi military official said at least 105 rebels have been killed after a cross-border attack from the Democratic Republic of Congo following five days of non-stop military operations. Five gunmen dressed in military fatigues burst into a bar and shot dead 3 ruling party activists before torching the local party office in the eastern Gisuru region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Burundi some 150 journalists and civil rights activists demonstrated to demand the release of a radio station boss accused of complicity in the murder of three Italian nuns last September.
(AFP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 12, Human Rights Watch said Burundian troops executed at least 47 surrendered rebels last month, part of a "broader pattern" of violence coming ahead of key elections.
(AFP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Burundi thousands marched through the capital in one of the largest demonstrations in recent years after the release of Bob Rugurika, a popular journalist and government critic from jail, months ahead of key elections.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Apr 15, The United Nations refugee agency said more than 5,800 Burundian refugees have crossed into Rwanda so far this month amid fears of violence before elections scheduled for June 26.
(AP, 4/15/15)
2015 Apr 17, Burundi police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters calling for the president not to run for a third term.
(AFP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 18, Burundi charged 65 protestors with rebellion after they were arrested a day earlier during clashes with police while calling for the president not to seek re-election.
(AFP, 4/19/15)
2015 Apr 24, Burundi's government announced a nationwide ban on demonstrations following threats by the opposition and activists to step up protests against controversial plans by the president to seek re-election.
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 25, Burundi's president was declared as candidate for a controversial third term in office.
(AFP, 4/25/15)
2015 Apr 26, Burundian police shot dead 2 protesters and wounded at least one other, in demonstrations against the president seeking a third term.
(Reuters, 4/26/15)
2015 Apr 27, Burundi authorities arrested a leading dissident and shut down the main independent radio station as they battled a second day of demonstrations against a bid by the president to cling to power for a third term. The Red Cross said at least 6 people have been killed in the street clashes.
(AFP, 4/27/15)(SFC, 4/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 28, In Burundi police fired tear gas and shot in the air to disperse hundreds of people protesting in the outskirts of Bujumbura against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term. The UN said more than 5,000 Burundians fled to Rwanda over the weekend.
(Reuters, 4/28/15)(AFP, 4/28/15)
2015 Apr 29, Burundi took the controversial question of President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term bid to the constitutional court but opposition supporters dismissed the move and said demonstrations would go on.
(AFP, 4/29/15)
2015 Apr 30, In Burundi at least nine protestors were hurt in Bujumbura in renewed clashes over a bid by the country's president to stand for a third term. A soldier died and a civilian was hurt when an intelligence officer opened fire near a barricade erected by protesters in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 4/30/15)
2015 May 1, In Burundi 2 police officers and a civilian were killed in two grenade attacks late today in Bujumbura.
(AP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, Burundi's government vowed a major crackdown after a week of political protests. Protest organizers called for a two-day halt to demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's move to seek a third term, which they says violates the constitution and endangers the peace deal that ended a civil war in 2005.
(AFP, 5/2/15) (Reuters, 5/2/15)
2015 May 3, Burundi journalists held a somber gathering to mark World Press Freedom Day, after a week of political violence that has also seen radio stations shut down.
(AFP, 5/3/15)
2015 May 4, Burundi police shot dead at least 3 demonstrators and wounded dozens of others, in running battles with protesters angry at a bid by President Pierre Nkurunziza to extend his rule.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 5, Burundi's constitutional court validated the president's controversial bid for a third term but the deputy president of the court, who fled to Rwanda ahead of the ruling, called it unconstitutional.
(AP, 5/5/15)
2015 May 6, The UN said nearly 40,000 refugees have fled Burundi to neighboring Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last month, amid protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.
(Reuters, 5/6/15)
2015 May 7, In Burundi at least 4 people were killed in clashes over the president's bid for a third term. Protesters burned a man alive in Bujumbura, saying he was a member of the ruling party's youth wing which had attacked them during their demonstrations.
(AFP, 5/7/15)(Reuters, 5/7/15)
2015 May 9, Burundi's leading opposition figure, Agathon Rwasa, registered to run in a coming presidential election against Pierre Nkurunziza, whose quest for a third term has sparked two weeks of protests. The government ordered "insurgents" to end weeks of demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term bid and ordered all barricades to be removed within 48 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 10, In Burundi one person was killed in a clash with police in Bujumbura, as the government ordered a ban on any further street protests over President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.
(AP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 11, In Burundi about 2,000 people marched through a neighborhood of Bujumbura as police looked on, breaking the government's ban on any further street protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term in power.
(AP, 5/11/15)
2015 May 12, Burundi police opened fire on protesters as President Pierre Nkurunziza defied international pressure to end a controversial third term bid.
(AFP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 13, Burundi Major General Godefroid Niyombare said he had deposed President Pierre Nkurunziza for seeking an unconstitutional third term in office, and was working with civil society groups to form a transitional government. Niyombare was fired as Nkurunziza's intelligence chief in February. President Pierre Nkurunziza was abroad at an African summit in Tanzania.
(Reuters, 5/13/15)
2015 May 14, Burundi's armed forces chief announced that an attempted coup against President Pierre Nkurunziza had failed, although the claim was quickly denied by opponents of the central African nation's leader. Rival factions of Burundi's army fought intense battles for control of the capital. 12 soldiers who backed the coup were killed. Pres, Nkurunziza returned to Burundi and a deputy coup leader said the attempted coup has failed.
(AFP, 5/14/15)(Reuters, 5/15/15)
2015 May 15, The UN refugee agency said more than 105,000 people have fled Burundi to Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, following an attempted coup and protests.
(Reuters, 5/15/15)
2015 May 16, Burundi officials said five generals have been arrested for plotting a failed coup led by Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare, who remained in hiding.
(SSFC, 5/17/15, p.A2)
2015 May 18, Burundi's president sacked his defense and foreign minister after a failed coup bid, as hundreds of protesters defied warnings to end demonstrations and resumed weeks of anti-government street marches.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 19, Burundi police fired tear gas and beat protesters who were demanding President Pierre Nkurunziza end his bid for a third term. Rights groups say at least 20 people have died in three weeks of clashes between security forces and protesters.
(Reuters, 5/19/15)
2015 May 20, A Burundi army officer said police killed a soldier who was trying act as a buffer between police and protesters, who are demonstrating against the president's bid for a third term in office.
(AP, 5/20/15)
2015 May 21, In Burundi street battles and gunfire erupted again in Bujumbura as protesters against Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza rejected calls for calm. 2 protesters were killed bringing to 20 the number of deaths witnessed by the Red Cross over the last month.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 21, Belgium warned Burundian president Pierre Nkurunziza that it would cut off aid to his government if he went ahead with his bid for a third term in office.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 21, The WHO said a cholera outbreak has killed at least 30 people in a Tanzanian refugee camp for Burundians.
(AP, 5/21/15)
2015 May 22, The UN refugee agency said an outbreak of cholera has infected 3,000 people in a Tanzanian border region where refugees from Burundi have massed. UNHCR said 300 to 400 new cases are being reported daily.
(AP, 5/22/15)
2015 May 23, In Burundi opposition politician Zedi Feruzi and a body guard were killed in a drive-by shooting. Thousands of people attended his funeral the next day.
(AP, 5/24/15)
2015 May 29, Agathon Rwasa, Burundi's most prominent opposition leader, said his party is boycotting elections amid political unrest stemming from the president's bid for a third term.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 31, In Tanzania African leaders began talks in their second summit in a month aimed at restoring peace in Burundi.
(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 Jun 2, Protesters in Burundi clashed again with police just three days ahead of parliamentary elections after a month of demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a controversial third term.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 5, Burundi police shot dead a protester in the capital amid renewed demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AFP, 6/5/15)
2015 Jun 19, Rights activists said at least 77 people have been killed in Burundi in clashes with security forces since the start of antigovernment protests in April.
(SFC, 6/20/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 22, In Burundi 4 people died and at least 30 were wounded in an overnight grenade attack on a bar in the country's northern region of Ngozi. Three people were arrested following the attack.
(AP, 6/22/15)
2015 Jun 25, Burundian students broke into the US embassy to escape police as one of the country's vice presidents announced he had fled to Belgium.
(AFP, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 27, In Burundi witnesses in Jabe neighborhood in of Bujumbura, reported intense gunfire late today in an apparent police crackdown on areas seen as hosting anti-government protesters. Two people were killed in attacks believed to have been carried out by police.
(AP, 6/28/15)
2015 Jun 29, Burundians voted in controversial elections that were condemned internationally amid an opposition boycott and grenade attacks, with the election commission claiming an "enormous" turnout despite many stations being quiet.
(AFP, 6/29/15)
2015 Jul 10, Burundi's government said it backed regional calls to postpone controversial polls, but only by a few days, saying it had asked the election commission to implement the delay. Burundian soldiers clashed with gunmen in a northern region near Rwanda. Government soldiers killed 31 suspected rebels and captured another 170 in Kayanza province.
(AFP, 7/10/15)(SFC, 7/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 12, In Burundi a regional governor said the army has captured scores of gunmen and killed others in two days of clashes in the north.
(Reuters, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 18, In Burundi three candidates announced their withdrawal from the July 21 elections saying the presidential contest will not be free and fair.
(SSFC, 7/19/15, p.A3)
2015 Jul 21, Polls for Burundi’s presidential election opened to the news that 3 people had been killed overnight. On July 24 the election commission announced that President Pierre Nkurunziza won his controversial third consecutive term in office
(AP, 7/21/15)(AFP, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 22, A supporter of Burundi's opposition was shot dead, a victim of electoral violence as the country awaits results of the presidential election amid unrest due to President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.
(AP, 7/23/15)
2015 Jul 25, Burundi's main opposition leader Agathon Rwasa denounced the third consecutive term win by President Pierre Nkurunziza and demanded fresh elections.
(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 27, The US State Department took Malaysia and Cuba off its “tier 3" list of countries failing to combat modern-day slavery, leaving the US open to criticism that politics is swaying the often-contentious rankings in its annual human trafficking report. Burundi, Belize, Belarus, Comoros and South Sudan were downgraded to Tier 3, where Thailand remained for a second year.
(AP, 7/27/15)(Reuters, 7/27/15)
2015 Aug 2, In Burundi General Adolphe Nshimirimana, a close aide to Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza, was killed in a rocket attack on his car in Bujumbura.
(AP, 8/2/15)
2015 Aug 3, Burundian human rights activist Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa was shot in the face as he made his way home from work by a gunman on a motorbike. He publicly opposed Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial and successful bid for a third term last month. Mbonimpa survived and his condition the next day was reported stable.
(AFP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 5, In Burundi Come Harerimana, a local leader of the ruling party, was attacked and killed in Bujumbura, the third high-profile attack in three days.
(Reuters, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 13, Burundi's ruling party termed the controversial re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza (51) a "divine miracle", as the opposition accused him of declaring war by clinging to power. Meanwhile violence continued unabated with at least 3 people killed in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 15, In Burundi unidentified gunmen shot and killed Col. Jean Bikomagu, the former army chief of staff, in the second high-profile killing this month amid chaos linked to the disputed reelection of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AP, 8/15/15)
2015 Aug 18, In Burundi 4 people were killed in Bujumbura as violence persisted following the controversial re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 20, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza was sworn in for a third term without any fanfare or even a public announcement beforehand.
(AP, 8/20/15)
2015 Sep 2, In Burundi anti-government protesters resumed in some neighborhoods in the capital after residents accused the police of harassment. At least 4 people were killed in the renewed clashes.
(AP, 9/2/15)(AFP, 9/2/15)
2015 Sep 7, In Burundi the spokesman for an opposition party was shot and killed outside his home in Bujumbura.
(AP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 11, In Burundi the head of the armed forces survived an assassination attempt in the capital Bujumbura. At least seven people were killed in the attack.
(AFP, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 16, A Burundi official said more than 100 men in a central province have been arrested in two days by security forces trying to prevent Burundians from being recruited to fight the government.
(AP, 9/16/15)
2015 Sep 24, In Burundi unidentified gunmen raided a police station in Bujumbura. One of the attackers was killed with no other casualties.
(Reuters, 9/25/15)
2015 Oct 3, In Burundi at least a dozen civilians were killed in clashes between police and anti-government protesters in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 10/4/15)
2015 Oct 9, In Burundi unknown gunmen killed Pascal Nshirimana, the son-in-law of prominent human rights activist Pierre Clave Mbonimpa, who openly opposed President Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial bid for a third term in office.
(Reuters, 10/9/15)
2015 Oct 13, In Burundi 9 civilians, including a staff member of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), were shot to death reportedly at close range. 2 police officers also died during exchanges of heavy gunfire in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 26, In Burundi gunmen hurled grenades and battled with police in a series of deadly clashes, the latest violence since the controversial re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza. Police killed a "madman" who tried to attack officers with a machete in Bujumbura. Over the next 24 hours more than a dozen people were killed in clashes between security forces and citizens.
(AFP, 10/27/15)(Reuters, 10/28/15)
2015 Nov 2, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza gave civilians five days to surrender any illegal weapons or face tough action by the police. 2 more bodies were discovered in Bujumbura. 9 people have been killed in gunfights with security forces since Oct 31.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 5, In Burundi some residents fled their neighborhood in Bujumbura after they found four bodies on the streets, part of a wave of killings associated with President Pierre Nkurunziza's re-election for a third term.
(AP, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 8, In Burundi gunmen at least 9 people were killed in an attack at a bar in Bujumbura hours before police launched house-to-house searches for weapons. Families were fleeing their homes in the capital, over fears the government will unleash a fresh wave of bloodletting as part of a crackdown to stamp out resistance to the president.
(AFP, 11/8/15)(SFC, 11/9/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 16, In Burundi three grenades exploded in different parts of the capital following a night of violence in which 5 people, including a policeman, were killed. 60 injured people were treated after suffering injuries in grenade explosions.
(AP, 11/16/15)(AP, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 22, Burundi police said at least 5 people were killed in overnight clashes. Residents reported a battle at the president's office in the capital Bujumbura which has been plagued by violence since a disputed presidential election.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 23, The US said it would impose sanctions on four current and former Burundi government officials, including the minister of public security and the leader of a failed coup, because of violence in Burundi.
(Reuters, 11/26/15)
2015 Nov 27, In Burundi attackers shot at a lawmaker from the ruling party as he drove to parliament, killing one police officer and wounding others.
(Reuters, 11/29/15)
2015 Nov 28, In Burundi Colonel Serges Kabanyura was wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen on his way to Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 11/29/15)
2015 Nov 29, In Burundi gunmen in Bujumbura shot dead army Major Salvator Katihabwa and wounded the husband of the senate's deputy speaker.
(AFP, 11/30/15)
2015 Dec 2, In Burundi at least 7 people were killed over the last 24 hours in gun battles and grenade blasts with bodies found dumped on the streets.
(AFP, 12/2/15)
2015 Dec 4, Burundi police shot dead 3 attackers and arrested three others when they foiled an attempt to ambush and assassinate a top police officer in the capital.
(Reuters, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 9, In Burundi at least 7 people were killed in Bujumbura during a night of violence in flashpoint districts where months of protests took place against President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 11, In Burundi gunmen stormed three military installations before dawn. At least 15 people were killed as gunfire and explosions rocked the capital. 87 people were reported killed in the violence.
(AP, 12/11/15)(AP, 12/12/15)
2015 Dec 12, Burundi residents awoke to find at least 39 dead bodies scattered in the streets of Bujumbura, a day after coordinated armed assaults on three military installations. 87 people were killed in an escalation of the violence surrounding the disputed third term of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AFP, 12/12/15)(AP, 12/13/15)
2015 Dec 18, The African Union said it will send a 5,000 strong force to stop violence in troubled Burundi, giving Bujumbura a four-day deadline to agree but warning it would send troops anyway.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, Burundi's government said it would not agree to the deployment of African Union peacekeepers, warning that they would be seen as an invasion force.
(AFP, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 22, Burundi's government rejected a proposed African Union peacekeeping mission already dubbed an "invasion force" by parliament.
(AFP, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 23, Burundi's rebels came together for the first time as a force aimed at ousting President Pierre Nkurunziza, after months of bloodshed in the troubled central African country. The rebels have called themselves the Republican Forces of Burundi, or "Forebu" from its name in French, Les Forces Republicaines du Burundi.
(AFP, 12/23/15)
2015 Dec 26, In Burundi thousands of supporters of the president protested against the African Union's plan to deploy 5,000 peacekeepers to quell the country's escalating unrest.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 27, Rival Burundi factions traveled to Uganda ahead of talks aimed at ending months of violence, as the African Union pushed the government to accept a peacekeeping force.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 28, Burundi's government and opposition kicked off peace talks in Uganda.
(Reuters, 12/28/15)
2015 The population of Burundi was over 10 million.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.42)
2016 Jan 1, In Burundi at least one person was killed and a dozen injured in a series of grenade attacks in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 13, In Burundi Army Capt. Idi Omar Bahenda and police Brig. Jean Claude Niyongabo were killed in a gunfight with military forces in the Kiyenzi area of Bujumbura. Bahenda was wanted for recruiting rebels opposed to the government.
(AP, 1/13/16)
2016 Jan 15, The UN said it has documented cases of Burundi's security forces gang-raping women during searches of opposition supporters' houses and heard witness testimony of mass graves.
(Reuters, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 18, In Burundi 3 people were killed late today in a grenade attack on a bar in Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 1/19/16)
2016 Jan 23, In Ethiopia UN Security Council ambassadors and African Union leaders met for crisis talks on Burundi, after the government refused a proposed AU force to stem violence in the troubled country.
(AFP, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 30, African leaders met in Addis Ababa in a bid to end armed crises, including in troubled Burundi, with an unprecedented vote on deploying a 5,000-strong peacekeeping force despite Burundi's vehement opposition.
(AFP, 1/30/16)
2016 Feb 3, A confidential report to the UN Security Council accused Rwanda of recruiting and training Burundian refugees with the goal of ousting Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(Reuters, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 12, Rwanda said it will send Burundian refugees to other countries, after the United States said that they were being recruited from camps to fight on behalf of the Burundian opposition.
(Reuters, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 13, In central Burundi two people loyal to the ruling party were "executed" overnight in Gacimbirigongo.
(AFP, 2/13/16)
2016 Feb 13, In Burundi a grenade attack late today on a military base in Bujumbura killed a child and wounded his father and one other person.
(Reuters, 2/14/16)
2016 Feb 15, Insurgents in Burundi hurled a series of grenades, killing a child and wounding at least 30 people in the latest in a string of attacks.
(AFP, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 21, In Burundi 2 people were killed late today in a gun attack in a bar.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, In Burundi one person had died and another was wounded in a grenade attack at a Bujumbura market just hours before the arrival of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who is trying to end the bloodshed over President Pierre Nkurunziza's disputed re-election.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 23, Burundi's president promised to hold talks, free prisoners and lift arrest warrants to try and end months of violence, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said after the two men met in the capital.
(Reuters, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 25, A delegation of five African heads of state arrived in Bujumbura at the start of a two-day visit to push for talks to end Burundi's deep political crisis.
(AFP, 2/25/16)
2016 Feb 27, The African Union said it will deploy rights observers and military monitors to violence-plagued Burundi following a visit to the country by five African leaders.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Mar 2, Former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa was named as the new mediator for talks to end a nearly year-long crisis in neighboring Burundi by the regional East African Community (EAC).
(AFP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 14, The European Union said it is suspending direct financial support for the Burundian government after concluding that it had not done enough to find a political solution to conflict that has so far cost more than 400 lives.
(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 22, In Burundi Maj. Didier Muhimpundu was killed after being shot several times in a bar in Bujumbura. Lieutenant Colonel Darius Ikurakure was shot dead by an assassin dressed in a military uniform inside the ministry compound in Bujumbura. The rebel group FOREBU, led by a former officer who launched an abortive coup, later claimed responsibility for the death of Ikurakure.
(AP, 3/23/16)(Reuters, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 30, In Burundi Jacques Bihozagara, a former Rwandan ambassador to France and Belgium and an ex-government minister, died in a jail where he was being held on suspicion of spying, adding to cross-border tensions that have increased dangerously in recent months. He had been held on espionage charges since December.
(Reuters, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 11, In Burundi gunmen killed at least 5 people and wounded seven when they opened fire on a market late today in the eastern Ruyigi region.
(AFP, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 13, In Burundi Phocas Bakaza, a member of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, was shot dead in Mutimbuza area near the capital Bujumbura. Two people were soon arrested in connection with the attack.
(AP, 4/14/16)
2016 Apr 14, A Burundi soldier was killed when an armed group attacked a military camp northwest of Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 4/14/16)
2016 Apr 15, Burundi announced that almost 700 soldiers were to be forced to retire. Almost all of them served in the army when it was an entirely Tutsi institution.
(Econ, 4/23/16, p.37)
2016 Apr 16, In Burundi 4 members of the country's ruling party were killed in an attack in continuing violence associated with the extended tenure of Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza.
(AP, 4/17/16)
2016 Apr 20, In Burundi gunmen ambushed Colonel Emmanuel Buzubona as he traveled on the back of a motorbike to his home in Bujumbura. Soldiers on patrol killed two people in a clash with an armed group in Kivumu village in Mugamba southern district, 60 km southeast of Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 25, In Burundi Athanase Kararuza, a Tutsi general and security advisor to the vice president, was killed in an attack by heavily-armed men, along with his wife and daughter in Bujumbura.
(AP, 4/25/16)
2016 Apr 25, In eastern Burundi nearly 30 schoolchildren and their supervisors were killed and many more injured when their truck crashed outside Musongati.
(AFP, 4/25/16)
2016 May 16, Rwanda officials said over 1,500 Burundians have been expelled in recent days, amid worsening relations between the neighbors.
(AFP, 5/16/16)
2016 May 24, In Burundi gunmen killed 3 people including a retired army colonel and a police chief, in continuing violence associated with Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza's extended time in power.
(AP, 5/25/16)
2016 Jun 2, The United States said it has sanctioned Burundi military commander Marius Ngendabanka, security official Ignace Sibomana and rebel leader Edouard Nshimirimana for engaging in actions or policies that threaten the peace, security or stability of the East African country.
(AP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jul 13, In Burundi Hafsa Mossi, a former minister in President Pierre Nkurunziza's government, was "shot by criminals" in Bujumbura. She was a member of the East African Legislative Assembly.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 29, The UN Security Council agreed to send a contingent of 228 United Nations police to Burundi to control the continuing violence and to protect human rights in the East African nation.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Burundi more than 1,000 people participated in a government-backed demonstration in the capital, Bujumbura, to protest France's proposal passed by UN Security Council to deploy UN police to the country.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Aug 2, Burundi said it would refuse to allow United Nations police onto its territory to monitor the security and human rights situation after the UN Security Council voted to send 228 officers.
(Reuters, 8/3/16)
2016 Nov 24, Burundi's government refused to cooperate with a UN inquiry into months of political violence, saying accusations of abuses by its officials were part of a political plot. The UN released a report by independent experts in September identifying government officials suspected of ordering political opposition to be tortured or killed.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 26, In Burundi thousands of people took part in street protests across the country in support of the government's opposition to United Nations investigators who are looking into alleged human rights abuses in the east African country.
(AP, 11/26/16)
2016 Dec 22, Democratic Republic of Congo troops killed 10 soldiers from neighboring Burundi after they crossed the border overnight in pursuit of rebels.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 23, Burundi's parliament passed a law imposing strict controls on international non-governmental organizations after President Pierre Nkurunziza accused such groups of backing an insurrection against him.
(AFP, 12/24/16)
2017 Jan 1, In Burundi a gunman killed Emmanuel Niyonkuru (54), the country’s environment and water minister early today, the first senior government figure to be murdered in nearly two years of political violence.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Mar 13, Burundi’s health minister said about 700 people have died from malaria in Burundi so far this year. He said authorities have registered 1.8 million infections in a rising epidemic.
(AFP, 3/14/17)
2017 Mar 29, The UN said a malaria outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people in Burundi this year, a significant increase over the 700 cited by the country’s health ministry on March 13.
(SFC, 3/30/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 18, The UN rights chief condemned the feared youth wing of Burundi's ruling party for repeatedly calling for the rape and murder of opposition supporters. Human Rights Watch has accused the Imbonerakure of being involved in assaults on opposition members, gang-rapes of women and torture. The UN regularly refers to them as a militia.
(AFP, 4/18/17)
2017 May 17, In Burundi an unidentified man threw a grenade into a house in Bujumbura, killing three people believed to be members of the ruling party's youth wing.
(Reuters, 5/18/17)
2017 May 26, The Burundi government said unmarried couples have until the end of the year to legalize their relationships, as part of an effort to reform morals in the country.
(AFP, 5/26/17)
2017 Jun 15, Burundi denied UN allegations that said its security forces and government-allied militia are continuing to torture and kill opponents.
(AFP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jul 9, In Burundi a grenade attack late today killed eight people and wounded 50 others in a village in northern Kayanza province.
(Reuters, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 18, In Washington, DC, six teens from Burundi went missing while competing in an int’l. robotics competition. Two of them were seen crossing into Canada and foul play was not suspected.
(SFC, 7/22/17, p.A6)
2017 Aug 17, In Burundi grenade attacks on two bars killed at least three people and wounded 27 others in Bujumbura.
(Reuters, 8/18/17)
2017 Sep 4, UN investigators accused Burundi's government of crimes against humanity, including executions and torture, and urged the International Criminal Court to open a case "as soon as possible". Burundi formally announced it was withdrawing from the court, with the move set to take effect on October 27.
(AFP, 9/4/17)
2017 Sep 15, In eastern Congo DRC at least 36 Burundian refugees were killed in clashes with Congolese security forces in the town of Kamanyola over plans to send some of them home. One Congolese officer was killed. Congo's government spokesman Lambert Mende denied that those killed were refugees, saying that the clashes broke out when assailants from an unidentified armed group attacked an office belonging to the national intelligence agency.
(Reuters, 9/16/17)(SSFC, 9/17/17 p.A3)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Human Rights Council voted to extend the mission of an international probe into atrocities in Burundi, overriding strong pushback from the government accused of crimes against humanity.
(AFP, 9/29/17)
2017 Oct 24, Burundi's cabinet backed a constitutional change that would allow its president to stay in office until 2034, widening a political rift that has driven the country progressively deeper into crisis.
(Reuters, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 27, Burundi became the first country to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Officials said the court's prosecutor will move ahead with an examination of the East African nation's deadly political turmoil.
(AP, 10/27/17)
2017 Nov 9, The International Criminal Court (ICC) approved a prosecution request to investigate war crimes allegedly committed in Burundi by the government and government-linked groups against political foes from April 2015 to October 2017.
(Reuters, 11/9/17)
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