note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2001 est.)
Currency:
Burundi franc (BIF)
Languages:
Kirundi (official), French (official), Swahili (along Lake Tanganyika and in the Bujumbura area)
Elevation:
highest point: Mount Heha 2,670 m
lowest point: Lake Tanganyika 772 m
Natural hazards:
flooding, landslides, drought
Climate:
equatorial; high plateau with considerable altitude variation (772 m to 2,670 m above sea level); average annual temperature varies with altitude from 23 to 17 degrees centigrade but is generally moderate as the average altitude is about 1,700 m; average annual rainfall is about 150 cm; wet seasons from February to May and September to November, and dry seasons from June to August and December to January
Burundi is a landlocked, resource-poor country with an underdeveloped manufacturing sector. The economy is predominantly agricultural with roughly 90% of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture. Its economic health depends on the coffee crop, which accounts for 80% of foreign exchange earnings. The ability to pay for imports therefore rests largely on the vagaries of the climate and the international coffee market. Since October 1993 the nation has suffered from massive ethnic-based violence which has resulted in the death of perhaps 250,000 persons and the displacement of about 800,000 others. Only one in four children go to school, and one in nine adults has HIV/AIDS. Foods, medicines, and electricity remain in short supply.
Industry:
light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, soap; assembly of imported components; public works construction; food processing
Ethnicgroups:
Hutu (Bantu) 85%, Tutsi (Hamitic) 14%, Twa (Pygmy) 1%, Europeans 3,000, South Asians 2,000
Yellow fever:
A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required from travellers over 1 year of age coming from infected areas.
Malaria:
Malaria risk—predominantly due to P. falciparum—exists throughout the year in the whole country. Resistance to chloroquine reported.
