International phone code for Burundi: +257

Standard EAN-13 (country barcode):  -

Olympic country code: BDI

FIFA code: BDI

Land area: 9,903 sq mi (25,649 sq km); total area: 10,745 sq mi (27,830 sq km)

Population (2014 est.): 10,395,931 (growth rate: 3.28%); birth rate: 42.33/1000; infant mortality rate: 63.44/1000; life expectancy: 59.55

Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Bujumbura, 605,000

Other large city: Gitega, 45,700

Monetary unit: Burundi franc

National name: Republika y'u Burundi

Languages: Kirundi 29.7% (official), Kirundi and other language 9.1%, French (official) and French and other language 0.3%, Swahili and Swahili and other language 0.2% (along Lake Tanganyika and in the Bujumbura area), English and English and other language 0.06%, more than 2 languages 3.7%, unspecified 56.9% (2008 est.)

Ethnicity/race: Hutu (Bantu) 85%, Tutsi (Hamitic) 14%, Twa (Pygmy) 1%, Europeans 3,000, South Asians 2,000

National Holiday: Independence Day, July 1

Religions: Catholic 62.1%, Protestant 23.9% (includes Adventist 2.3% and other Protestant 21.6%), Muslim 2.5%, other 3.6%, unspecified 7.9% (2008 est.)

Literacy rate: 67.2% (2010 est.)

Background:

Burundi is a small nation in east-central Africa's Great Lakes region.
Burundi's first democratically elected president was assassinated in October 1993 after only one hundred days in office. Since then, some 200,000 Burundians have perished in widespread, often intense ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi factions. Hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced or have become refugees in neighboring countries. Burundi troops, seeking to secure their borders, briefly intervened in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1998.
A new transitional government, inaugurated on 1 November 2001, signed a power-sharing agreement with the largest rebel faction in December 2003 and set in place a provisional constitution in October 2004. Implementation of the agreement has been problematic, however, as one remaining rebel group refuses to sign on and elections have been repeatedly delayed, clouding prospects for a sustainable peace.