Peace Agreements Database

Burundian Civil War (1993-2005)

The conflict had an ethnic base between Hutu and Tutsi populations, and is one of a set of regionally connected conflicts also addressed n the Great Lakes process. Since independence in 1972, the Burundian political landscape has been polarised and marked by ethnic-based tensions, political assassinations and large-scale violence. For the following two decades, three Tutsi military regimes associated with the Union for National Progress (UPRONA) ruled the country. During these military dictatorships, numerous waves of mass violence resulted from the attempts of various opposition rebels groups to destabilise the three regimes, and the regimes’ use of violence to repress these attempts. Despite a wave of hope in the early 1990’s, Burundi entered a decade-long civil war in 1993 following the assassination of Burundi’s first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, from the ethnically-Hutu Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) by Tutsi opposition in the military.
In 1998 the Arusha Peace Talks commenced and in August 2000, international pressure resulted in the signing of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi. However, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy (CNND) did not sign. Additionally, and Party for the Liberation of Hutu People (Palipehutu) did not participate in negotiations. These outsiders continued sporadic violence until 2008. In 2015, a new wave of political violence is taking place after President Nkurunziza, from the CNDD-FDD which has been in power since 2005, won a contested third-mandate.