Burundi has formally appealed to the United Nations to recognize the 1972–1973 mass killings of Hutus as a genocide, over five decades after the violence left an estimated 200,000 dead and forced hundreds of thousands into exile. At a press briefing in Bujumbura on Tuesday, Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, president of Burundi’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), declared that the government now considers the evidence overwhelming and is pushing for international acknowledgment.
“This genocide deserves to be recognized at the international level. It deserves recognition because fifty years — and more — is too long,” Ndayicariye said. He noted that Burundi will ask the UN Security Council to place the issue on its agenda. The 1972 atrocities, which were carried out by the then-Tutsi-led government following a Hutu uprising, are among the most devastating yet least internationally addressed episodes of mass violence in post-colonial Africa.
Since 2018, the CVR has unearthed over 6,000 mass graves and collected testimony from thousands of survivors. Most of the victims were educated Hutus, students, and civil servants systematically targeted during the campaign. Ndayicariye stressed that recognition would serve as a step toward justice and reconciliation, both within Burundi and the wider Great Lakes region. The push comes amid regional movements for historical accountability, as neighboring Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo also continue to demand international recognition of past atrocities. Burundi’s government says it will present its findings and demand for recognition to the African Union and UN before the end of 2025.
