Burundi

Burundi is a small country in Africa.

It has no sea, but it has a giant lake. It is full of green hills. The capital city is Gitega.

Burundi is a small country in east-central Africa, just south of the Equator. It has no coast, but its southwestern edge runs along Lake Tanganyika. Most of the country is hills, mountains and high plateaus, so the weather is cooler than you might expect so close to the Equator.

Burundi was a kingdom for hundreds of years, and unlike most African countries, its borders were not drawn by European rulers. Gitega, in the center, is the political capital, and Bujumbura, on the lake, is the biggest city. About 14.4 million people lived there in 2025.

Burundi is a landlocked country in east-central Africa, south of the Equator; Britannica notes that this historic kingdom is one of the few African countries whose borders were not determined by colonial rulers. A 2019 law designated Gitega as the political capital and Bujumbura, on Lake Tanganyika and the capital until then, as the economic capital; as of July 2026 the government's move to Gitega was not complete.

Burundi is heavily populated, with one of the highest densities in Africa, yet urban centers are few. The World Bank put the population at 14,390,003 in 2025; more than two-fifths are under 15. The Hutu majority and Tutsi minority both speak Rundi (Kirundi), a linguistic unity Britannica calls rare in sub-Saharan Africa.

Gitega is the capital city.

It has a museum about Burundi's past. Bujumbura is the biggest city, next to the big lake. It has a busy market.

Gitega, in the middle of the country, is the political and cultural capital, with the national museum and several schools. Nearby are the southernmost source of the Nile River and a spectacular waterfall, the Chutes de la Kagera.

Bujumbura, the biggest city, stretches along the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika. Its old center has buildings from the German and Belgian colonial times and a central market with hundreds of stalls. Other towns include Ngozi and Muyinga in the north.

Gitega, the political capital, is also the cultural capital, with the national museum and several schools; it lies near the southernmost source of the Nile and the Chutes de la Kagera waterfall. Bujumbura, the largest city and the capital until 2019, sprawls along the northeastern end of Lake Tanganyika; its old quarter has buildings from the German and Belgian periods and a central market of hundreds of booths. Other urban centers include Muyinga and Ngozi in the north.

Settlement is unusual: the hilly terrain discourages villages, so families live in dispersed compounds spread over the hills rather than in clustered settlements. Britannica links this pattern to isolation between communities. Bujumbura also holds the National Library, founded in 1989.

Burundi has many green hills and mountains.

Rain falls a lot, with a short dry time in the middle of the year. Lake Tanganyika is very long and very deep.

Burundi lies on the eastern side of the Western Rift Valley, a giant crack in the Earth's crust. Along Lake Tanganyika the land climbs steeply to a mountain ridge called the Congo-Nile divide: rain on one side flows toward the Congo River, and on the other toward the Nile.

Lake Tanganyika is the longest freshwater lake in the world, about 660 kilometers, and the second deepest. In the hills, average temperatures are only about 21 °C. The highest areas get 1,500 to 1,800 millimeters of rain a year, with a short dry season from May to August.

Burundi includes the eastern flank of the Western Rift Valley: the narrow Imbo valley, with the Rusizi River on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, runs south to Lake Tanganyika, above which the land rises steeply to the Congo-Nile divide at about 2,600 m. East of the divide, plateaus slope to 1,500–1,800 m in the southeast. Lake Tanganyika, 660 km long and 1,436 m deep, is the world's longest freshwater lake and second deepest after Baikal.

Elevation moderates the tropical climate: the central plateau averages about 21 °C, with nights usually below 15 °C. Rainfall reaches 1,500–1,800 mm in the highlands but only about 1,000 mm on the lakeshore, with a short dry season from May to August. Thin humus over lateritic subsoil, steep slopes and heavy rain make soil erosion a serious problem, worsened by clearing land for farms; forest covered less than 3 percent of the land by the early 21st century.

Hippos and crocodiles live in Lake Tanganyika.

Baboons and warthogs live on the hills. Many kinds of birds fly over the lake. Fishers catch fish in the lakes.

Hippopotamuses and crocodiles are common along Lake Tanganyika, and many kinds of birds live around its shores. The lake and Burundi's smaller lakes and rivers are full of fish, such as tilapia.

On land, Burundi has lost most of its large animals. Most of the natural forest has been cleared for farms, and poaching made elephants all but disappear. Warthogs, baboons and antelope are among the animals that remain.

Britannica notes that hippopotamuses and crocodiles abound on Lake Tanganyika, whose bird life is varied, and that the lake and Burundi's interior lakes and rivers are rich sources of tilapia and other fish. The lake lies on the line dividing the floral regions of eastern and western Africa, and oil palms typical of the west grow on its shores.

On land, natural forest survives mainly on the higher mountain slopes, with wooded savanna on the higher plateaus and more open savanna lower down. Poaching has dealt a severe blow to wildlife: the elephant population has virtually disappeared, leaving warthogs, baboons and antelope as the less endangered species. Despite reforestation efforts, forest covered less than 3 percent of the land by the early 21st century.

About 14.4 million people live in Burundi.

Almost everyone speaks Kirundi. Many families grow beans, corn and coffee. Big drums boom at festivals!

Most people in Burundi are Hutu, and a smaller group are Tutsi; the Twa are another group. Almost everyone speaks Kirundi. Kirundi and French have long been official languages, and English became a third official language in 2014. Swahili is used for trade in Bujumbura.

Most families farm small plots on the hills, growing beans, corn, cassava and sorghum, and coffee and tea to sell. Burundi's royal drum dance, with a dozen or more drums arranged in a half circle, is on UNESCO's list of living heritage, and a traveling troupe, the Drummers of Burundi, is the country's best-known cultural export.

The Hutu form the overwhelming majority and the Tutsi a significant minority; the Twa, originally hunter-gatherers, and some Swahili-speaking people are smaller groups. Britannica stresses that the two main groups have intermarried for centuries and share Rundi (Kirundi), which is official with French and, since 2014, English; Swahili is the language of trade in Bujumbura. About three-fifths of people are Roman Catholic and more than one-eighth Protestant.

Agriculture is the mainstay: beans, corn, cassava and sorghum are staples, and arabica coffee is the principal export, with tea and sugar. UNESCO inscribed the ritual dance of the royal drum in 2014: powerful synchronized drumming on an odd number of drums around a central drum, with dancing, heroic poetry and songs, performed at national and local feasts and passed down through practice and schooling. Les Maîtres-Tambours du Burundi, up to 30 percussionists and dancers, built their sound around the inkiranya drum, and Vénuste Niyongabo won Burundi's first Olympic medal, gold in the 5,000 m in 1996.