Paper short abstract:

The aim of the study is to analyse contemporary social developments in Burundi in the face of years of internal conflict and the need for profound reforms in terms of the broader process of democratisation, national reconciliation and civil society building.

Paper long abstract:

Burundi has remained outside the mainstream of researchers' interest for years. The ethnic conflicts of the 1990s were overshadowed by the magnitude of the 1994 genocide tragedy in Rwanda, while subsequent attempts to recover from the crisis went unnoticed due to both the development successes of neighbouring Rwanda and the recurrent moments of crisis in Burundi, which called into question the effectiveness of the reforms carried out. The civil war that broke out in Burundi in October 1993, following the fatal assassination attempt on the democratically elected President Melchior Ndadaye, resulted in the deaths of some 300,000 people and the collapse of the country's economy. A ceasefire and the holding of democratic parliamentary and presidential elections was only realised in July 2005.

The period of President Nkurunziza's leadership (2005-2020) will go down in history as marked by the country's difficult economic situation but also by the persecution of actual or perceived political opponents. For years, Burundian society has been waiting for profound reforms to take place, also in terms of the broader process of democratisation and national reconciliation.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the current social situation in Burundi, together with an attempt to answer questions about contemporary social change in the face of more than 30 years of destabilisation; internal conflict and arduous attempts to reconstruct the state and its society.