8 PART ONE: GENERAL INFORMATION I. Presentation of Burundi Burundi is a country which straddles Central and East Africa. It is a landlocked, East African country with a surface area of 27,834 km2 of which 2,700 km constitute land above water level. It is bordered in the North by Rwanda, in the South and East by Tanzania, and in the West by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The country is divided into 17 Provinces, 129 Districts and 2,908 hills on which are built the 97 neighbourhoods of the Bujumbura Municipality. It has a tropical climate with two main seasons, a long rainy season and a dry season of a little over 3 months. The national language is Kirundi. French is the language of administration. Other languages such as English and Kiswahili are taught in school. The recent general population and housing census of 2008 gave an estimate of the population as at 8,038,618 inhabitants of whom 4,111,751 are women. The Capital, Bujumbura, is the most populated City. The Burundian population is very young: the youth and the children represent over 60%. The population density is 310 inhabitants/ km2 with: - An annual population growth rate of 3%; - A fertility index of 6.3 children per woman; - A life expectancy at birth of less than 44 years. The National Constitution stipulates that Burundi is a secular State. The freedom of worship is guaranteed and thus Catholic, Protestant and Muslim religions are the most visible. At the political level, before the colonial era Burundi had a Monarchy said to be of « divine right » with the « Ganwa Dynasty». It had been colonized by Germany under mandate before the First World War and by Belgium under mandate and under trusteeship from the Second World War up to its Independence on the 1st July 1962. Immediately after independence, Burundi underwent a very long period of internal cyclical crises, among others: - The assassination on 13 October 1961 of the Prince Louis RWAGASORE, Hero of the national independence. - Fratricidal crises and civil wars of a genocidal nature followed each other cyclically in 1965, 1969, 1972, 1988, 1991 and 1993 to 2000, date of signature of the cease fire.