Burundi (pronounced /bəˈɹʊndɨ/), officially the Republic of Burundi (Kirundi: Republika y'u Burundi, [buˈɾundi]; French: République du Burundi, [byˈʁyndi]), is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura. Although the country is landlocked, much of the southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika.

The Twa, Tutsi, and Hutu peoples have occupied Burundi since the country's formation five centuries ago. Burundi was ruled as a kingdom by the Tutsi for over two hundred years. However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany and Belgium occupied the region, and Burundi and Rwanda became a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi.

Political unrest occurred throughout the region, in part, because of social differences between the Tutsi and Hutu, provoking civil war in Burundi throughout the middle twentieth century. Presently, Burundi is governed as a presidential representative democratic republic.

Hussein Radjabu is a former Burundian politician. He was the party chairman of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy until February 2007, when he was deposed at a party congress. In April 2007, he was arrested on charges of "plotting an armed rebellion and insulting the president by referring to him as an "empty bottle". In April 2008, Radjabu was convicted of those charges, leading to a 13 year prison sentence.

Michel Micombero (1940 – 16 July 1983) was the first President of Burundi from November 28, 1966 to November 1, 1976. He was member of the Tutsi ethnicity.

In the years after independence, Burundi had seen a rapid descent into anarchy. The king Mwambutsa IV rapidly changed the Prime Minister as anti-Tutsi forces threatened to unleash the same violence as had hit Rwanda. On October 18, 1965, Hutu leader Gervais Nyangoma launched a coup, ousting the king. Soon afterward the largely Hutu police force, under the control of Antoine Serkwavu, began to massacre Tutsis in some parts of the country.

Michel Micombero was a young Tutsi army captain who had been born in Rutovu, Bururi Province. In 1965, he had only recently returned from school in Belgium and had quickly risen to become Secretary of Defense. He rallied the army, and its largely Tutsi officers, against the coup and overthrew them. This was followed by numerous attacks on Hutus throughout the nation.

Micombero became Prime Minister on July 11, 1966 and was the real power in the nation technically ruled by King Ntare V, who deposed his father with the help of Micombero. On November 28, 1966, Micombero overthrew the monarchy and made himself president. He also promoted himself to brigadier general.