Bujumbura (redirected from Bujumbura, Burundi)

Bujumbura (b'jəm`br`ə), city (1994 est. pop. 300,000), capital of Burundi and of Bujumbura prov., W Burundi, a port on Lake Tanganyika. Formerly known as Usumbura, it is Burundi's largest city and its administrative, communications, and economic center. Manufactures include food products, cement and other building materials, textiles, soap, shoes, and metal goods. Livestock and agricultural produce from the surrounding region are traded in the city. Bujumbura is Burundi's main port and ships most of the country's chief export, coffee, as well as cotton, skins, and tin ore, via Lake Tanganyika to Tanzania and Congo (Kinshasa). Roads connect the city to cities in the Congo and Rwanda. A small village in the 19th cent., Bujumbura grew after it became (1899) a military post in German East Africa. After World War I it was made the administrative center of the Belgian Ruanda-Urundi League of Nations mandate. Its name was changed from Usumbura to Bujumbura when Burundi became independent in 1962. The Univ. of Bujumbura (1960) is there. The city has an international airport. Since independence, Bujumbura has been the scene of frequent fighting between the country's two main ethnic groups, with Hutu militias opposing the Tutsi-dominated Burundi army.

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Bujumbura

 formerly Usumbura

City (pop., 2001: 346,000), capital of Burundi. Lying on the northern end of Lake Tanganyika, it is the country's chief port and largest urban centre. Known as Usumbura in the 1890s when German troops occupied the area and incorporated it into German East Africa, it was included in a Tutsi kingdom. When Burundi achieved independence in 1962, the city's name was changed to Bujumbura. Its industry specializes in textiles and agricultural products; most of Burundi's foreign trade is shipped between the capital and Kigoma, Tanzania.