Burundi, one of the world's poorest nations, is emerging from a 12-year, ethnic-based civil war.
Since independence in 1961, it has been plagued by tension between the dominant Tutsi minority and the Hutu majority.
The ethnic violence sparked off in 1994 made Burundi the scene of one of Africa's most intractable conflicts.
It is now beginning to reap the dividends of a peace process. But it faces the formidable tasks of reviving a shattered economy and of forging national unity.
In 1993 Burundi seemed poised to enter a new era when, in their first democratic elections, Burundians chose their first Hutu head of state, Melchior Ndadaye, and a parliament dominated by the Hutu Front for Democracy in Burundi (Frodebu) party.
AT-A-GLANCEBut within months Ndadaye had been assassinated, setting the scene for years of Hutu-Tutsi violence in which an estimated 300,000 people, most of them civilians, were killed.
In early 1994 parliament elected another Hutu, Cyprien Ntaryamira, as president. But he was killed in April alongside the president of neighbouring Rwanda when the plane they were travelling in was shot down over Kigali.
Another Hutu, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, was appointed president in October 1994. But within months, the mainly Tutsi Union for National Progress (Uprona) party withdrew from the government and parliament, sparking a new wave of ethnic violence.
Following long-running talks, mediated by South Africa, a power-sharing government was set up in 2001 and most of the rebel groups agreed to a ceasefire. Four years later Burundians voted in the first parliamentary elections since the start of the civil war.
The main Hutu former rebel group won the vote and nominated its leader Pierre Nkurunziza as president.
Meanwhile, the government and the United Nations have begun the lengthy process of disarming thousands of soldiers and former rebels, as well as forming a new national army.
President: Pierre Nkurunziza
Pierre Nkurunziza, a Hutu former rebel leader, became the first president to be chosen in democratic elections since the start of Burundi's civil war.
He was the sole candidate in the August 2005 vote in the National
Assembly and the Senate after his Force for the Defence of Democracy
(FDD) won parliamentary elections in June.
The vote was one of the final steps in a peace process intended to end years of fighting between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi-controlled army.
Mr Nkurunziza, who pledged to strive for unity, faces the pressing challenges of reassuring the Tutsi minority and of reviving the economy. At the end of 2005 he unveiled a $2bn rejuvenation plan, most of it to be funded by foreign donors, targeted at the agricultural sector.
A peace agreement between the government and the remaining Hutu rebels was signed in 2006, but broke down after the government rejected rebel demands for power-sharing.
A ceasefire between the government and the last active rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), was signed in May 2008.
Born in 1964 in Ngozi province, Pierre Nkurunziza trained as a sports teacher. His father, a former MP, was killed in ethnic violence in 1972.
He joined the Hutu rebellion in 1995 and rose through the ranks to become head of the FDD in 2001. He sustained a serious mortar injury during the conflict.
The married father of two is a born-again Christian.
Operating in a turbulent political climate, Burundi's media are subject to self-censorship and occasional government censorship. However, diverse political views are aired and the opposition press does function, albeit sporadically.
Newspaper readership is limited by low literacy levels. Radio is the main source of information for many Burundians. The government runs the sole TV station, the only radio station with national coverage, as well as the only newspaper that publishes regularly.
BBC World Service broadcasts on 90.2 FM in Bujumbura; Radio France Internationale and the Voice of America are also available in the capital.
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