Story of independence

In 1993, following the first democratic elections in Burundi, when for the first time the winning party represents the majority of the population, the civil war breaks out. The new president, Melchior Ndadaye, is killed in a coup d’état three month after being elected. This murder will be followed by the most inhuman ferocity which, within a few months, leads to the death of 300.000 people and the fleeing of 2 millions of refugees, in a country of just 6 million inhabitants. The core of the Burundian conflict is identified in the outskirt of the capital, the Northern Neighbourhoods of Bujumbura, made of six districts which account for the highest demographic and poverty rates in the whole of Burundi. The tension and the ethnical exploitation in these areas reach degenerative peaks, causing a fratricide war and a late ethnic division: the Hutu in Kamenge and Kinama, the Tutsi in Ngagara e Cibitoke.

It is worth remembering that Burundi obtained independence in 1962, and up to 1993 the political entourage has been continuously represented by only one party, which several times revealed itself through the acts of its army. Starting in 1964 and continuing throughout the years, repeated bloodbath and massacres have come one after the other. Memories of the population recall of fictitious meetings called for by the police where people, gathered under false pretext, were killed and raids carried out in schools where pupils belonged to the same ethnic group.