Burundian Civil War

The death of President Melchior Ndadaye (pictured 1993) was one of the civil war's main causes

History of Burundi
Emblem of Burundi
Urewe civilisation Hutu, Tutsi and Twa origins
Kingdom of Burundi German East Africa 1891–1919 Ruanda-Urundi 1922–1962 Ruzagayura famine 1943–1944
Road to independence Parliamentary election 1961 Prince Rwagasore assassination 1961 Independence 1962
Burundi 1962–present Army coup attempt 1965 Ndizeye coup Jul 1966 Micombero coup Nov 1966 Genocidal killings of Hutus 1972 Bagaza coup 1976 Buyoya coup, 1st 1987
Burundian Civil War Army coup attempt 1993 Genocidal killings of Tutsis 1993 Buyoya coup, 2nd 1996 Titanic Express massacre 2000 Army coup attempt 2001 Itaba massacre 2002
Current Second Congo War 1998–2003 Burundian unrest 2015–2018 Army coup attempt 2015 COVID-19 pandemic 2020–present
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After decades of military dictatorships, the parliamentary and presidential elections of June and July 1993 were the first ones in Burundi to be free and fair. FRODEBU decisively defeated the largely Tutsi Union for National Progress (Union pour le progrès national, UPRONA) of President Buyoya. Thus, FRODEBU leader Melchior Ndadaye became Burundi's first democratically elected Hutu president.[13] His tenure was wrought with problems from the beginning. Though PALIPEHUTU's leadership decided to cooperate with Ndadaye's new government, its military chief commander Kabora Kossan refused to end the insurgency. He and his followers split from PALIPEHUTU-FNL, and from then on simply called themselves "National Forces of Liberation" (FNL). For Kossan and his men the only option was to continue to fight until all Tutsi in Burundi were dead, removed or fully disempowered.[14] Nevertheless, Ndadaye's government was more threatened by Tutsi extremists than by radical Hutu groups: The latter were still rather weak, whereas the former controlled much of Burundi's military. The political situation escalated when Tutsi extremist army officers launched a coup on 21 October.[13][15] Supported by about half of the armed forces, the putschists murdered Ndadaye alongside other leading FRODEBU members, and declared a new regime. However, the military government was destabilized from the beginning, as it faced internal chaos and opposition by foreign powers.[14][13]

As a result of President Ndadaye's murder, violence and chaos broke out all over Burundi. Hutu attacked and killed many UPRONA supporters, most of them Tutsi but also some Hutu, while the putschists and allied Tutsi groups assaulted Hutu and FRODEBU sympathizers.[13] Many civilians banded together in local militias to defend themselves, but these groups quickly became proactive as well, carrying out attacks and mass killings against each other.[15] Urban street gangs, many of which had been biethnic before 1993, split along ethnic lines and began to work for extremist politicians. They received money and guns, and in return demonstrated, and murdered on the orders of the Tutsi and Hutu parties.[16] An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people died within a year[17] about as many Hutu as Tutsi.[13] As result of this chaos and international pressure, the putschists' regime collapsed, and power was returned to a FRODEBU-dominated civilian government.[14][13]

The mass killings consequently abated, and the country was somewhat restabilized by the end of 1993. The coup and subsequent ethnic violence had however deeply affected the country.[14][15] The Tutsi extremists in the military were still present, and though they had given up outright power for the time being, they continued to undermine the civilian government in hopes of regaining full power in the future. The Hutu rebels believed that the coup had proven the impossibility of negotiations, and regarded the new Hutu-dominated civilian government as mere "stooges" of the old regime. They consequently fully resumed their insurgency. Furthermore, radicals among the Tutsi civil society regarded FRODEBU as génocidaires, believing that the party had initiated the anti-Tutsi mass killings following the 1993 coup. They thus organized demonstrations and strikes to bring down what they considered a criminal regime.[14]

Building torched during the 1993 genocide

A succession of bi-ethnic governments attempted to stabilize the country from early 1994 to July 1996, but all failed.[15] Tutsi extremists in the army continued to undermine any attempt of FRODEBU to consolidate power, and parts of FRODEBU decided in early 1994 that compromise was no longer possible. Minister of Interior Léonard Nyangoma led a FRODEBU faction into armed rebellion, creating the National Council for the Defense of Democracy–Forces for the Defense of Democracy (Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie – Forces pour la défense de la démocratie, CNDD-FDD).[13] Nyangoma's group consequently became the most important Hutu rebel group, though PALIPEHUTU-FNL and FROLINA continued to be active.[12][13][14] PALIPEHUTU-FNL was weakened by further rifts, and would fracture into numerous smaller factions over disagreements on negotiations and leadership during the civil war.[1] With the exemption of the rather moderate CNDD-FDD, all Hutu militias embraced the radical Hutu Power ideology and desired the extermination of all Burundian Tutsi.[14]

The Hutu insurgents received support by the neighboring countries of Zaire and Tanzania,[18] both of which allowed the rebels to set up bases on their territories from where they could launch raids into Burundi.[12][19] The reasons for which they supported the insurgents differed greatly: Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko believed that he could gain political leverage by harboring Rwandan and Burundian Hutu militants and refugees. They would suppress anti-Mobutu groups in Zaire, and give him something to bargain with the international community which sought to resolve the Great Lakes refugee crisis.[20] In contrast, leading Tanzanian statesman Julius Nyerere wanted the region to be stabilized and pacified,[21] and believed that the existence of Burundi and Rwanda as independent states posed a security problem by itself. Ultimately, he desired for these states to be unified with Tanzania, regaining all territory that had formerly belonged to German East Africa.[22] In the short term, however, Nyerere believed that peace and order could only be achieved in Burundi through the inclusion of Hutu in the Burundian government and military.[23]

While the country further descended into civil war, the political situation in Burundi deteriorated.[13] Ndadaye's successor Cyprien Ntaryamira was assassinated in the same plane crash with Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994. This act marked the beginning of the Rwandan genocide, while in Burundi, the death of Ntaryamira exacerbated the violence and unrest, although there was no general massacre. Sylvestre Ntibantunganya was installed to a four-year presidency on April 8, but the security situation further declined. The influx of hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees and the activities of armed Hutu and Tutsi groups further destabilized the government. A coalition government, formed by the peaceful FRODEBU faction and UPRONA in September 1994, proved to be too weak and fractured to actually govern the country. With the civil authorities factually defunct,[24] the military effectively held control of "what little state power remained".[25]

At the same time, the power of non-state actors increased. Though many self-defense groups had been disbanded after 1993, others transformed into larger ethnic militias.[15] These groups included unofficial paramilitary wings of Hutu and Tutsi parties, independent extremist militias, and militant youth gangs. Notable Tutsi factions included the Party for National Recovery's (Parti pour le redressement national, PARENA) Imbogaraburundi ("those-who-will-bring-Burundi-back"), the People's Reconciliation Party's (Parti de la réconciliation des personnes, PRP) Sans Echecs ("the unfailing ones"),[16] and urban youth gangs[15] like Sans Défaite ("the undefeated"), Sans Pitié ("the pitiless ones"), Sans Capote ("those-who-do-not-wear-condoms") which acted as forces for hire for various extremist Tutsi parties. Hutu parties like FRODEBU and FDD also raised supportive militias, Inziraguhemuka ("those-who-did-not-betray") and Intagoheka ("those-who-never-sleep") respectively, while the Hutu street gang "Chicago Bulls" from Bujumbura managed to expand into a small army.[16] These militias undermined attempts by the government to restore peace. The Tutsi militias were often trained and armed by extremist factions in the Burundian military. With aid by the army, they defeated a number of Hutu militias, but also terrorized as well as displaced many Hutu civilians at Bujumbura and other cities in 1995/96.[15]

Furthermore, the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (Front Patriotique Rwandais, RPF) defeated the Hutu regime of Rwanda in July 1994, ending the Rwandan Civil War and genocide. The military and paramilitary forces of old Rwandan Hutu regime (Ex-FAR/ALiR and Interahamwe) subsequently fled across the border into Zaire. There, they rebuilt their strength and launched an insurgency against the RPF. The Burundian CNDD-FDD and PALIPEHUTU-FNL soon allied themselves with the Rwandan Hutu factions which consequently aided them in attacking the Burundian military.[2] And despite the CNDD-FDD’s denial of these links, Filip Reyntjens assessed how northern Burundi’s situation made Rwandan and Burundian Hutu rebel groups “objective allies” for geopolitical convenience, given an interest “in effectively controlling this area which could become a major base for an invasion of Rwanda by Rwandan exiles.”[26]

This situation, and the decline of state authority in Burundi, greatly alarmed the RPF-led government of Rwanda. The RPF feared that the collapse of the Burundian government would lead not only to the influx of possibly 500,000 Tutsi refugees into Rwanda, but also provide a new haven to the Rwandan Hutu insurgents. The Rwandan government thus began providing aid to the Burundian government from 1995. Rwandan troops would repeatedly cross the border, and attack Hutu refugee camps which harbored rebel forces in coordination with the Burundian military and local Tutsi militias.[27] This development, according to Reyntjens, gave rise to the “conviction that transnational Hutu and Tutsi alliances fight each other.”[28]

Ex-President Pierre Buyoya took over the Burundian government in the 1996 coup

The power-sharing political system of Hutu presidency and Tutsi military operated until 1996, when Tutsi Pierre Buyoya replaced the Hutu president in a coup, ostensibly to restore order.[15] As the government had already been under de facto military control by this point, the coup mostly cemented the status quo.[25] Upon assuming power, Buyoya took action to solve the war peacefully. He brought the radical Tutsi mostly under control, forcing their militias to integrate into the military or to be disbanded.[15] Buyoya also attempted to open negotiations with the insurgents.[25] Despite this, the coup also strengthened the Hutu rebel groups, as Buyoya's regime was regarded as illegitimate,[15] and neighboring countries imposed an embargo on Burundi to protest against the coup.[25] The civil war consequently escalated in intensity.[15][29] Hutu rebels grew in power[30] and killed about 300 Tutsi in a major attack on 20 July 1996.[31] The increasing activity of the Hutu rebels in Burundi worried the Rwandan government, and influenced its decision to launch the First Congo War in late 1996 to overthrow President Mobutu of Zaire. By doing so, Rwanda hoped to eliminate Zaire as haven for various Hutu rebel groups;[32] the CNDD-FDD had for example set up major bases at Uvira and Bukavu in eastern Zaire from where it launched raids into Burundi.[19] Although Rwanda successfully overthrew Mobutu in a matter of months and replaced him with Laurent-Désiré Kabila, CNDD-FDD rebels still managed to significantly expand their operations in 1997. Infiltrating Bururi Province and Makamba Province in Burundi's south, they even attacked Rutovu, Buyoya's home town and center of Burundi's Tutsi elite at the time.[15] In fact, at least elements of the new Congolese government under Laurent-Désiré's son Joseph Kabila came to support the Burundian insurgents by the early 2000s just as Mobutu had done it previously.[4]

In response to the deteriorating security situation, the government opted to organize a new paramilitary initiative. The military forced civilians to organize unarmed patrols to guard their communities against rebels. Though the state authorities claimed that these self-defense groups consisted of volunteers, civilians were generally coerced with threats of violence or fines. Most of the civilian militiamen were also poor Hutu, while Tutsi and wealthy or well conntected Hutu were generally exempted of the patrol duties.[33] As result of demands by Tutsi extremist politicians, the military also set up a special, armed training program for Tutsi militiamen; Hutu were not allowed to join this training.[34] As these initiatives failed to halt the growth of the rebel movements, the Burundian military eventually decided to set up a new militia in Cibitoke Province, which was initially simply known as "the young men" (les jeunes or abajeunes). In contrast to previous self-defense groups which were either unarmed or dominated by Tutsi, the abajeunes were both armed as well as mostly Hutu. They consisted of ex-rebels and former civilian patrolmen who had proven themselves to be trustworthy. Trained, armed and supplied by the military, the abajeunes were a success. The program was thus expanded to the entire country; the abajeunes in southern Burundi soon became known as the "Guardians of the Peace". Numbering 3,000 fighters by late 1997, they were decisive in keeping the insurgents at bay.[35] Nevertheless, the number of war casualties further increased in 1998.[29]

Hutu rebels regularly attacked Bujumbura (center of the map) from the forested mountains around it

In 1998, Buyoya and the opposition-led Hutu parliament reached an agreement to sign a transitional constitution, and Buyoya was sworn in as president. Formal peace talks with the rebels began at Arusha on 15 June 1998.[36] The talks proved to be extremely difficult. Tanzanian ex-President Julius Nyerere acted as chief negotiator, and attempted to use caution and patience to achieve a solution. Upon Nyerere's natural death in 1999, Nelson Mandela assumed responsibility for the peace talks. He and other heads of states in the region increased the pressure on Burundi's political leadership, pressuring them to accept a government with participation of the rebel groups.[25] Meanwhile, the civil war continued unabated, despite the efforts of the international community to facilitate the peace process.[37] Though 1999 saw a reduction of fighting, the war again grew in intensity during the following two years.[29] The Burundian military conducted a major offensive between October and December 2000, attempting to clear the Tenga forest near Bujumbura of insurgents. Though killing many rebel fighters, the operation was a failure, and the Tenga forest remained an insurgent stronghold.[38] After bitter negotiations, an agreement was finally reached which established a transitional government, where the presidency and vice-presidency would be rotated every 18 months, sharing power between the Hutus and Tutsis. While the Burundian government and three Tutsi groups[37] signed the Arusha Accords ceasefire accord in August 2000,[25] two leading Hutu rebel groups refused to participate, and the fighting continued.[37] The Arusha talks closed on November 30, 2000.[37] Twenty Tutsis and one British woman were killed on 28 December 2000, in the Titanic Express massacre.

As the Arusha Accords were gradually implemented, severe challenges remained. Several times, the peace process almost broke down. Even though some moderate Tutsi parties had signed the peace deal, they remained opposed to some of its provisitions.[25] Many Tutsi extremists refused to accept the Arusha Accords at all and refused any deal with the Hutu rebels.[15] On 18 April 2001, an attempted coup against Buyoya failed. The putschists had wanted to prevent the power-sharing deal from coming into effect.[39] A group of extremist Tutsis also attempted to revive the "Puissance Auto-défense-Amasekanya" (PA-Amasekanya) ethnic militia in mid-2000 to resist the peace agreement, but the leaders of this faction were promptly jailed.[15] On 23 July 2001, it was agreed that the transitional government would be led by Buyoya for 18 months, followed by Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu and FRODEBU leader. Furthermore, a reform of the Burundian military would be implemented as soon as possible; the latter was especially contentious among the Tutsi.[25]

The transitional government was implemented in October 2001. Buyoya was sworn in as internationally recognized president in November, while the first South African peacekeepers arrived in Burundi.[25] Despite this, the main Hutu rebel groups, CNDD-FDD and FNL, still refused to sign a ceasefire agreement.[40] Instead, fighting intensified, as the FNL launched numerous attacks around Bujumbura.[38] Some 300 boys were kidnapped from Museuma College on November 9, 2001.[41] The army responded by launching an offensive against the rebel bases in Tenga forest in December, claiming to have killed 500 insurgents.[38] The September 9, 2002 Itaba massacre left hundreds of unarmed civilians dead.

After being promised to be included in the new government, two wings[25] of CNDD-FDD finally agreed to a ceasefire and joined the Arusha agreement on 3 December 2002.[42] The PALIPEHUTU-FNL refused to enter negotiations with the government and continued its struggle.[42]

On April 9, 2003, the force headquarters of the African Union Mission in Burundi was established in Bujumbura under South African Maj. Gen. Sipho Binda.[43] As previously agreed, Buyoya stepped down, and Ndayizeye became President on 30 April 2003. In the following months, the CNDD-FDD faction of Pierre Nkurunziza was gradually integrated into the transitional government.[25] A power-sharing deal was signed on 8 October 2003, and Nkurunziza was appointed Minister of State in charge of good governance and the general inspection of the state.[44] On 18 October 2003, it was announced that the African Union Mission had reached full strength: 1,483 South Africans, 820 Ethiopians, and 232 personnel from Mozambique.[43] As the Arusha Accords were implemented, the peace process made substantial progress.[45] The reform of the military proved remarkably successful, and the integration of CNDD-FDD fighters went well. In contrast to earlier attempts to ensure peace which had been sabotaged by army extremists, most of the military had become wary of the constant civil war by the early 2000s. Its Tutsi and Hutu troops proved to be willing to stay loyal to the new government. The United Nations Operation in Burundi also helped to stabilize the country.[45]

In spite of these successes, the war had not yet ended. The FNL remained the only active rebel group, but it was still a capable fighting force and continued its attacks.[45] In July 2003, a rebel raid on Bujumbura left 300 dead and 15,000 displaced.[46] On December 29, 2003, Archbishop Michael Courtney, the papal nuncio for the country, was murdered. Confronted by the newly unified Burundian military and the international peacekeepers, as well as a war-wary population, the abilities of the FNL to wage an insurgency gradually whittled down. By late 2004, it had just about 1,000 fighters left, and its area of operations had been reduced to just Bujumbura Rural Province.[45] In August 2004, the FNL claimed responsibility for killing 160 Congolese Tutsi refugees in a United Nations camp at Gatumba near the Congo border in Burundi.[45] The attack was strongly condemned by the U.N. Security Council, which issued a statement of outrage at the fact that "most of the victims were women, children and babies who were shot dead and burned in their shelters.[47] The FNL attempted to deflect criticism by claiming that the victims had been Banyamulenge militants,[45] but the Gatumba massacre proved to be a propaganda disaster. The group was consequently labelled as "terrorist" both internationally and in Burundi, weakening it politically.[48] Confronted with its declining fortunes, the FNL signalled that it was willing to negotiate an end of its insurgency.[49]

Pierre Nkurunziza was elected president in 2005

In 2005, many developments were made in the peace process. The president signed a law in January 2005 to initiate a new national army, consisting of Tutsi military forces and all but one of the Hutu rebel groups. The Constitution was approved by voters in a referendum—marking the first time Burundians had voted since 1994. They voted again in July during the parliamentary elections, postponed from November 2004,[50] in which "the Government of Burundi and the Independent National Electoral Commission conducted a technically-sound election, carried out in an atmosphere of peace and security."[51] The Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) ended up winning the parliamentary elections. Several months later, Pierre Nkurunziza from the Hutu FDD group was elected as president by the two Hutu-dominated houses of parliament.

After 12 years of living with a midnight-to-dawn curfew, Burundians were free to stay out late when the curfew was lifted on April 15, 2006, for the first time since 1993.[52] This signified the most stable point in Burundian civil affairs since the assassination of Hutu President Melchior Ndadaye and the beginning of the civil war.

Matters continued to look promising after Burundi's last rebel group, the FNL, signed a ceasefire deal in Tanzania, "solidifying the end of a 12-year civil war." As part of the agreement, members of the FNL were to be assembled, demobilized, and integrated into the national army.[53][54] Dissident parts of the FNL, most notably the National Liberation Forces – Icanzo (FNL–Icanzo), continued their insurgency, however, and only surrendered later on.[55] In mid-April 2008, FNL rebels shelled the then-capital, Bujumbura, while fighting killed at least 33.[56]

• Eriksson, Mikael; Wallensteen, Peter; Sollenberg, Margareta (September 2003). "Armed Conflict, 1989–2002". Journal of Peace Research. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publishing. 40 (5): 593–607. doi:10.1177/00223433030405006. JSTOR 3648363. S2CID 110338545.
• Lansford, Tom (2017). Political Handbook of the World 2016-2017. Volume 1. London: CQ Press. ISBN 9781506327150.
• Reyntjens, Filip (January 2006). "Briefing: Burundi: A Peaceful Transition after a Decade of War?". African Affairs. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 105 (418): 117–135. doi:10.1093/afraf/adi092. JSTOR 3518791.
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• Prunier, Gérard (2009). Africa's World War : Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-970583-2.