BURUNDI

Introduction

Current issues: in a number of waves since October 1993, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled the ethnic violence between the Hutu and Tutsi factions in Burundi and crossed into Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zaire (now called Democratic Republic of the Congo); since October 1996, an estimated 92,000 Hutu refuguees have been forced to return to Burundi by Tutsi rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaving an estimated 35,000 still dispersed there; in Burundi, the ethnic violence between the Hutus and the Tutsis continued in 1996, causing an additional 150,000 Hutus to flee to Tanzania, thus raising their numbers in that country to about 250,000

@Burundi:Geography

Location: Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Geographic coordinates: 3 30 S, 30 00 E

Map references: Africa

Area: total: 27,830 sq km land: 25,650 sq km water: 2,180 sq km

Area-comparative: slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries: total: 974 km border countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo 233 km, Rwanda 290 km, Tanzania 451 km