The small, central African country of Burundi is one of the poorest in the world, with a history of political crises and ethnic massacres and a long civil war.
The assassination in 1993 of first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, in a coup fomented by Tutsi soldiers triggered a civil war between the Tutsi-dominated army and Hutu rebels.
The civil war lasted until 2006 despite several peace deals, notably one signed in Tanzania in 2000, several years before the two main rebel groups laid down arms.
Burundi, ruled since 2005 by former Hutu rebel chief Pierre Nkurunziza, has been mired in political crisis since he announced in 2015 that he would run for a third term.
The novel "Small Country" by Franco-Rwandan novelist and rapper Gael Faye, about a boy in Bujumbura whose carefree life is devastated by the civil war, has received several literary prizes and been translated into nearly 40 languages.
