Burundi

Main article: Africa

Geography

Government of Burundi

• Government of the Republic of Burundi

Economy

GDP $307 per capita

Inflation

2022: Inflation in November - 22.1%

Foreign trade

2023:34% of wheat supplies come from Russia and Ukraine

Alcohol market

Minimum age to purchase alcoholic beverages

R&D

2020: R&D expenses - $8 million

Burundi IT Market

2022: No start-up industry

Power

2024: Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda combine their power grids

The cross-border energy project between Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda is 100% ready by February 2024. The delivery of the power plant with a capacity of more than 80 megawatts is scheduled for April 2024.

The Rusumo regional hydroelectric project represents a joint investment of nearly $468 million by the three partner countries and supplies a total of 66 million kWh of electricity to the three countries.

Tanzania received 21 million kWh, the same as Rwanda, and Burundi received the highest share of 22 million kWh. An additional 27 MW stabilizes the voltage level in the northwestern part of Tanzania.

"The interconnection and synchronization of power grids between Rwanda and Burundi has already been completed and preparations are ongoing to complete Tanzania's grid synchronization and the creation of a single pool," the Rusumo project manager said.

This connection will provide an opportunity for countries to trade electricity among themselves and even with neighboring countries.

2020: Very low energy consumption per capita

and

2019: Electrification rate just 11%

Agriculture

2019: Low use of pesticides in agriculture

Consumption

Meat

2023: Fish consumption is higher than meat consumption

Cereals

2019: Low rice consumption: 7.6 kg per person per year

Population

Main article: Population of Africa

Overweight

Migration

2021: Net outflow over 4 years

Mortality

Traffic safety

Education

Percentage of people who can read

Health care

2021: Maternity leave

in

2020: Duration of guaranteed paid sick leave from 3 to 5.9 months

Crime

Prisons

2019: Minimum age for children to be jailed

2018: Number of prisoners per 100 thousand citizens

Sport

2022: The most popular sport is football

in

History

2020: Parliament approves golden parachute for country's president

In January 2020, three months before the presidential election, the Burundi parliament voted in favor of a bill proposed by the Ministry of Justice providing for a golden parachute for the outgoing head of state.

In accordance with the new law, the former leader, after the expiration of the mandate, receives a luxury villa and a check for 1 billion Burundian francs (530 million dollars US). In addition, over the next seven years, the former president is entitled to a pension equivalent to the salary of the vice president (later - parliamentarian), as well as security and a fleet of six cars.

After the death of the ex-leader, his widow and children will also receive a pension of 2/3 of the pension of the deceased. Part of the population of one of the most impoverished and disadvantaged countries of the continent, especially opposition-minded metropolitan youth, took this news with undisguised annoyance, but there are also enough those who are quite loyal to the antics of their beloved leader, the Zangaro Today telegram channel noted.

Curiously, these privileges apply only to a president elected by popular vote, which is a rarity for a country like Burundi. So, in addition to the outgoing honorary retirement of Pierre Nkurunziza, privileges will extend only to the family of Melchior Ndadaye - the first democratically elected president, ousted and killed in 1993 after only three months in office.

Pierre Nkurunziza's third mandate expires in May 2020. And despite the fact that the extravagant Burundian leader could theoretically run for the highest state post twice more, Nkurunziza unexpectedly promised for everyone not to run for a new term, although he decently frightened citizens with hints of a desire to change the presidency to a royal title. The fears are not in vain. For some time now, on memorial sites next to the motto "Unity, Labor, Progress" the motto "God, King, Burundi" appears, adorning the monuments of the pre-republican era, in 2018 the capital of the country was moved from Bujumbura to Gitega - the former royal residence. Since the same year, by the decision of the parliament, Nkurunzize was given the title of "eternal supreme leader," and now, along with a golden parachute, the legislators also proposed endowing Pierre Nkurunziza with a hitherto unknown country and the difficult to translate title of "Visionnaire du patriotisme," which will organically continue and supplement the similar title assigned to him by the ruling party.

2019

7 million malaria cases, nearly 2,700 deaths

By the end of October 2019, almost 2,700 people had died of malaria in Burundi. The lack of protective nets, problems with medicines, as well as climate change are to blame, WHO reports.

The UN health agency says the problem lies in the decline in the effectiveness of the treatment.

Burundi is ordering new medicines and planning campaigns to spray homes with special means, as well as distributing mosquito nets.

Cholera outbreak

In August 2019, an outbreak of cholera was recorded in Bujumbura, Burundi's largest city.

126 people are reported to be infected. A number of cafes, bars and other places catering closed.

Almost half of Burundi's population is infected with malaria. 1800 deaths in six months

Disappointing statistics are cited by the UN humanitarian agency in August 2019: more than 5.7 million Burundi residents are infected with malaria, which is almost half of the country's population.

Back in May, the rate of increase in the incidence exceeded the epidemic scale.

Burundi recorded about 5 million cases and more than 1,800 deaths in the first half of 2019.

2015: Hundreds killed in unrest after Nkurunziza's decision to run for 3rd presidential term

Pierre Nkurunziza in April 2015 decided to run for a third term, which caused riots in Burundi.

A legal ploy for the third term of the president was then found quite quickly: they remembered that the first time he was elected not by universal suffrage, as prescribed by the basic law, but at a meeting of the parliament gathered after the end of the civil war. True, part of the Presidium of the Constitutional Court, despite the violent protests of the opposition, which confirmed that the current head of state had not yet used up the limit on participation in the elections, fled to emigration, voting against the controversial verdict with his feet.

The country has plunged into a protracted political crisis. Shortly before the vote, a group of military officers almost carried out a coup, taking advantage of the fact that the president went to Tanzania, not to explain himself to his neighbors, not to negotiate peace with his opponents. However, after several days of fighting, the loyalists in the army were able to prevail over the conspirators, after which the latter were forced to surrender at the mercy of the winners, and Nkurunziza was able to return to the country. He never left her again until his death - officials went to all foreign trips with a lower rank, and everyone who wanted to meet personally with the leader of the country had to visit Bujumbura themselves.

Hundreds of people were killed and more than 400,000 fled to neighboring countries due to military actions in response to protests against the incumbent president.

About 200,000 Burundians live in Tanzania in 2019.

2005: The country was led by a new generation of young CNDD - FDD politicians who included Tutsis in their ranks

In 2005, the country was led by a new generation of young CNDD politicians - FDD. The choppy military and cabinet bureaucrats were replaced by the partisan Hutu commanders who had passed the ten-year civil war - strong, harsh and vital peasant guys. For the first time in Burundi's history, they spilled politics from high offices onto agricultural and football fields and drove officials to take an interest in the "needs of the people."

Cycling Nkurunziza in a tracksuit - himself an avid farmer - won the sympathy of the peasants, and the singing war songs of the hunweibins from Imbonerakure, surrounded by children, vividly resembled scenes of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Tanzanian Ujamaa - it is no coincidence that the ruling CNDD-FDD owes so much to neighboring Tanzania. For the first time in Burundi's history, the ruling party became truly "popular" - the CNDD-FDD overcame its ethnic identity and attracted many Tutsis to its ranks. And that was the most important thing.

1993: Assassination of the country's first elected Hutu president and outbreak of civil war

On January 13, 2020, a mass grave with 270 bodies was opened in Bujumbura. There are buried the remains of those killed in clashes after the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye, the country's first elected Hutu president in 1993.

His assassination triggered a civil war between the Tutsi-dominated army and the Hutu rebel groups. More than 300,000 people died in the 12-year war.

1962: Gaining Independence

In early 2020, more than 4,000 mass graves from independence in 1962 were discovered in Burundi.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established in 2018, counted 142,505 mass murder victims in 1965, 1969, 1972, 1988 and 1993.

The chairman of the commission, Pierre-Claver Ndaykariye, said that many mass graves have not yet been found, because people are afraid to talk about it, they are threatened.

1914

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