The 1976 Burundian coup d'état was a bloodless

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

coup that took place in

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

on 1 November 1976. An Army faction, led by Deputy Chief of Staff Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, ousted President

Michel Micombero Michel Micombero (26 August 194016 July 1983) was a Burundian military officer and politician who ruled the country as ''de facto'' military dictator for the decade between 1966 and 1976. He was the last Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Burundi ...

. Bagaza formed the 30-member Supreme Revolutionary Council to take control, suspended the country's constitution and was inaugurated as president on 10 November 1976. Micombero was initially arrested but later allowed to leave the country and went into exile in

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

(then

Somali Democratic Republic The Somali Democratic Republic (; , ; ) was a socialist state in Somalia that existed from 1969 to 1991. Established in October 1969, the Somali Democratic Republic emerged following a 1969 Somali coup d'état, coup d'état led by Major General ...

under the rule of

Siad Barre Mohammed Siad Barre (, Osmanya script: , ''Muhammad Ziād Barīy''; 6 October 1919 – 2 January 1995) was a Somali military officer, politician, and revolutionary who served as the third president of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 Janu ...

) where he died in 1983.

Aftermath

The regime of Bagaza

After coming to power, Bagaza tried to defuse interethnic and intra-ethnic tensions between

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great L ...

and

Tutsi The Tutsi ( ), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi ( ...

through a series of liberalization. In 1977, Bagaza returned Burundi to civilian rule and the Hutus were incorporated into the government; an anti-corruption campaign began and eventually a limited land reform program was launched by the government.Charlie Kimber.
Coming to terms with barbarism in Rwanda and Burundi
" In International Socialism, (December 1996). Roger Southall, Kristina Bentley.
An African Peace Process: Mandela, South Africa, and Burundi
, HSRC Press (2005), p. 43-45. In November 1981, a new

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

was approved in a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

, but Burundi remained a

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

led by the

Union for National Progress The Union for National Progress (, UPRONA) is a nationalist political party in Burundi. Initially it emerged as a nationalist united front in opposition to Belgian colonial rule but subsequently became an integral part of the one-party state esta ...

party (''Union pour le Progrès national'', UPRONA).BAYEFSKY.COM 1992
Core reports: Burundi
, (accessed 10 Mar 2010)Gregory Mthembu-Salter. “Burundi Recent History,” in Africa South of the Sahara 2008, ed. I. Frame (London: Routledge, 2008), p. 153. According to the Constitution,

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

was held on 22 October 1982 for the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

, and on 31 August 1984 Bagaza was elected

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

with 99.6% of the vote, being the only candidate for the country's presidency. However, the reforms were cosmetic in nature, the state was still dominated by UPRONA and the military, which in general served as instruments of political and economic domination of the Hima-Tutsi clan, based in

Bururi Bururi is a city located in southern Burundi. It is the capital city of Bururi Province Bururi Province is one of the eighteen provinces of Burundi, provinces of Burundi. It was formerly Burundi's largest province until the communes of Commune o ...

(Bagaza was from province of the same name), while most of the Hutus remained marginalized and disenfranchised. Johnstone Summit Oketch, Tara Polzer.
Conflict and Coffee in Burundi
In Lind, J & Sturman, K (eds) Scarcity and Surfeit: The ecology of Africa's conflicts, Institute for Security Studies, (2002), p. 98. To organize resistance against Tutsi rule, Hutu refugees in the neighboring

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

(then

Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...

under the rule of

Mobutu Sese Seko Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga ( ; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997), often shortened to Mobutu Sese Seko or Mobutu and also known by his initials MSS, was a Congolese politician and military officer ...

) founded the

Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People The National Forces of Liberation (, or FNL) is a political party and former rebel group in Burundi. An Hutu, ethnic Hutu group, the party was previously known as the Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People (''Parti pour la libération du peup ...

(''Parti pour la libération du peuple Hutu'', PALIPEHUTU) in April 1980. During this period, Tutsis had monopoly access to education and work in government bodies. As the state centralized all decisions and dissemination of information, it came into conflict with the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. The church provided alternative means of access to health care, education and social mobilization to those controlled by the Tutsis, which resulted in the church being accused of "supporting the Hutu resistance". This conflict culminated in the expulsion of

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

and the nationalization of

Catholic school Catholic schools are Parochial school, parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest parochial schools, religious, no ...

s in 1985. Janvier D. Nkurunziza, Floribert Ngaruko.
Explaining Growth in Burundi: 1960-2000 (Draft)
, Centre for the Study of African Economies, (2002), pp. 5-6, 57-58.

Crisis of the regime and overthrow of Bagaza

The failure of the authorities to carry out meaningful political, economic and social reforms and the persecution of the Catholic Church by the state led to an increase in dissent, which, from 1984, has been suppressed with increasingly violent manifestations through the arrest and torture of opponents of the government. The early years of Bagaza's presidency were characterized by large public investments financed by foreign loans. Because these investments were made to create new sources of income and patronage for the Bururi-Tutsi elite, and not to achieve economic development goals, they did not have long-term viability. The authorities, in order to pay the external debt, imposed high taxes, which in turn hit the population hard. The deteriorating human rights situation has led to conflict with Burundi's major foreign donors, especially

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, who have begun to pressure the government to implement meaningful reforms, withholding aid, which accounted for 50% of government spending. By 1986, the country's economic situation had deteriorated so much that Bagaza was forced to accept a

structural adjustment A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

program imposed by the

IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of la ...

and the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, which included massive cuts in military and government spending. Such measures proved disastrous for Bagaza, as the Tutsi elite and military did not approve of the loss of jobs, income and patronage, as a result of which he was overthrown on 3 September 1987 in a bloodless military coup,Michael Hodd.
The Economies of Africa: Geography, Population, History, Stability, Structure, Performance, Forecasts
, G.K. Hall, (1991), p. 70. led by Major

Pierre Buyoya Pierre Buyoya (24 November 1949 – 17 December 2020) was a Burundian army officer and politician who served two terms as President of Burundi in 1987 to 1993 and 1996 to 2003. He was the second-longest-serving president in Burundian history. An ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1976 Burundian coup d'etat Coup

Military coups in Burundi 1970s coups d'état and coup attempts November 1976 in Africa