Burundi

Inhabited mainly by Hutu and Tutsi peoples, the area formed part of German East Africa from the 1890s until World War I, after which it was administered by Belgium. The country became an independent monarchy in 1962 and a republic in 1966. Multiparty elections in 1993 resulted in the country’s being led for the first time by a member of the Hutu majority rather than the traditionally dominant Tutsis; the assassination of the president within months, and the death in 1994 of the country’s next leader, sparked large-scale ethnic violence