Timeline: Burundi

A chronology of key events:

1300s - Hutu people settle in the region, imposing their language and culture on the original inhabitants, the Twa.

1400s - Tutsi settlers establish themselves as feudal rulers.

Civil war was played out in the capital, Bujumbura Population: 314,000 (World Health Organization, 2000)

1858 - British explorers Richard Burton and John Speke visit Burundi.

1890 - The Tutsi kingdom of Urundi and neighbouring Ruanda (Rwanda) incorporated into German East Africa.

1916 - Belgians occupy the area.

1923 Belgium granted League of Nations mandate to administer Ruanda-Urundi.

1959 - Influx of Tutsi refugees from Rwanda following ethnic violence there.

Independence

1962 - Urundi is separated from Ruanda-Urundi, becomes Burundi and is given independence as a monarchy under King Mwambutsa IV.

1963 - Thousands of Hutus flee to Rwanda following ethnic violence.

1965 - King Mwambutsa refuses to appoint a Hutu prime minister even though Hutus win a majority in parliamentary elections; attempted coup by Hutu police led by Michel Micombero brutally suppressed.

1966 July - Mwambutsa deposed by his son, Ntare V.

1966 November - Micombero stages a second coup, this time successfully, and declares himself president.

Overthrow of monarchy

1972 - Some 150,000 Hutus are massacred after Ntare V is killed, supposedly by Hutus.

MELCHIOR NDADAYE Assassination of Hutu president set off a wave of violence 1999: Death for Burundi assassins 2001: Burundi's deadly deadlock

1976 - Micombero is deposed in a military coup and is replaced by Jean-Baptiste Bagaza as president.

1981 - A new constitution makes Burundi a one-party state.

1987 - President Bagaza is deposed in a coup led by Pierre Buyoya.

1988 - Thousands of Hutus are massacred by Tutsis and thousands more flee to Rwanda.

Dashed hopes

1992 - New constitution providing for a multiparty system is adopted in a referendum.

1993 June - Melchior Ndadaye's Frodebu wins multi-party polls, ending military rule and leading to the installation of a pro-Hutu government.

1993 October - Tutsi soldiers assassinate Ndadaye. In revenge, some Frodebu members massacre Tutsis and the army begins reprisals. Burundi is plunged into an ethnic conflict which claims some 300,000 lives.

1994 - Parliament appoints Cyprien Ntaryamira - a Hutu - as president; Ntaryamira and his Rwandan counterpart are killed when the plane carrying them is shot down over the Rwandan capital; more ethnic violence and refugees fleeing to Rwanda; parliament speaker Sylvestre Ntibantunganya appointed president.

1995 - Massacre of Hutu refugees leads to renewed ethnic violence in the capital, Bujumbura.

1996 - Pierre Buyoya stages a second coup, deposing Ntibantunganya and suspending the constitution.

Buyoya sworn in

1998 - Buyoya and parliament agree on a transitional constitution under which Buyoya is formally sworn in as president.

1999 - Talks between warring factions held under the auspices of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere.

Fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of Burundians

2000 - Government and three Tutsi groups sign a ceasefire accord, but two main Hutu groups refuse to join in.

2001 January - President Buyoya agrees to ceasefire talks with leader of main ethnic Hutu rebel group, Forces for Defence of Democracy (FDD).

2001 April - Coup attempt fails.

2001 July - Defence minister says authorities have put down an attempted coup.

Transitional government

2001 October - Talks brokered by Nelson Mandela lead to installation of transitional government under which Hutu and Tutsi leaders will share power. Main Hutu rebel groups refuse to sign ceasefire and fighting intensifies.

POWER SHARING Domitien Ndayizeye (l) takes over from Pierre Buyoya (r) 2003: Burundi power transfer hailed

2001 25 December - Army says it killed more than 500 rebels in operation against opposition stronghold near Bujumbura.

2002 January - Jean Minani, leader of main Hutu party Frodebu, elected president of transitional national assembly set up to bridge ethnic divide.

2002 July - Upsurge in fighting delays planned peace talks; army says more than Hutu 200 rebels have been killed in clashes.

2002 December - Government and main Hutu rebel group FDD sign a ceasefire at talks in Tanzania, but fighting breaks out a month later.

2003 30 April - Domitien Ndayizeye - a Hutu - succeeds Pierre Buyoya as president, under terms of three-year, power-sharing transitional government inaugurated in 2001.

2003 July - Major rebel assault on Bujumbura. Some 300 rebels and 15 government soldiers are killed. Thousands flee their homes.

2003 November - President Ndayizeye and FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza sign agreement to end civil war at summit of African leaders in Tanzania.

Most former rebels have been disarmed 2004: New national army for Burundians

Nkurunziza and other FDD members given ministerial posts. Smaller Hutu rebel group, Forces for National Liberation (FNL), remains active.

2004 June - UN force takes over peacekeeping duties from African Union troops.

Hutu rebels kill 160 Congolese Tutsi refugees at a camp near the DR Congo border. Burundian Hutu rebel group, the FNL, claims responsibility.

2004 December - UN and government begin to disarm and demobilise thousands of soldiers and former rebels.

2005 January - President signs law to set up new national army, incorporating government forces and all but one Hutu rebel group, the FNL.

2005 March - Voters back power-sharing constitution.

Nkurunziza becomes president

2005 August - Pierre Nkurunziza, from the Hutu FDD group, is elected as president by the two houses of parliament. The FDD won parliamentary elections in June.

2005 September - Remaining active rebel group, the FNL, rejects government offer of peace talks.

2006 April - A curfew, imposed during ethnic violence in the early 1970s, is lifted.

2006 August - Former President Domitien Ndayizeye is accused of involvement in an alleged coup plot. Along with four of his co-accused, he is acquitted by the Supreme Court in January 2007.

2006 September - The last active rebel group, the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), and the government sign a ceasefire at talks in Tanzania.

2006 December - The increasingly authoritarian government risks triggering unrest and eroding the gains of peace, warns the International Crisis Group think tank.

2007 February - UN shuts down its peacekeeping mission and refocuses its operations on helping with reconstruction.

2007 April - DRCongo, Rwanda and Burundi relaunch the regional economic bloc - Great Lakes Countries Economic Community - known under its French acronym CEPGL.

Peace process stalls

2007 July - Senior FNL figures quit the truce monitoring team for the second time in a few months, sparking fears of renewed bloodshed.

2007 September - Rival FNL factions clash in Bujumbura, killing 20 fighters and sending residents fleeing. Rebel raids are also reported in the north-west of the country.

2007 December - Burundian soldiers join African Union peacekeepers in Somalia.

2008 February - In letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asking for UN protection, opposition MPs accuse government of drawing up blacklist of people to kill.

2008 April - Former head of governing party, Hussein Radjabu, is sentenced to 13 years in prison for undermining state security. Radjabu was accused of plotting armed rebellion and insulting President Nkurunziza.

2008 April-May - Renewed fighting between government forces and FNL rebels leaves at least 100 people dead.

2008 May - Government and FNL rebels sign ceasefire. FNL leader Agathon Rwasa returns home from exile in Tanzania.

2008 August - FNL leader Agathon Rwasa accuses Burundian security forces of plotting to kill him, but says this should not affect peace process.

2009 March - The Paris club of creditor nations cancels all of the $134.3m debt Burundi owed to its members.

2009 April - Ex-rebel Godefroid Niyombare becomes first ever Hutu chief of general staff of the army.

2009 April - Burundi's last rebel group, the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), lays down arms and officially transforms into a political party in a ceremony supervised by the African Union.