The origin and persistence of state fragility in Burundi

Abstract

This chapter argues that state fragility in Burundi has been both a cause and a consequence of the country’s political instability. It argues that affordable justice, international intervention to mediate conflicts with neighbours and to facilitate development, and a robust agenda for peacebuilding facilitated by an external actor are the keys to reducing fragility. The history of Burundi does not provide accounts of any serious ethnic conflict before the country was colonised at the end of the nineteenth century. Until the end of the nineteenth century, when it became first a German colony and then, after the First World War, a Belgian Protectorate, Burundi was one of the strongest kingdoms in the African Great Lakes region. The motive of the ringleaders of this coup, who were mostly from the army and enjoyed the backing of some politicians, appeared to be to thwart the nascent democratic process that was shifting the centre of power from Bururi.