Bujumbura

Bujumbura, city, western Burundi. It is the country’s largest urban center. The city’s industry specializes in textiles, leather, paper, chemicals, and agricultural products. Bujumbura also serves as the country’s main port on Lake Tanganyika. Most of Burundi’s foreign trade is shipped between Bujumbura and Kigoma, Tanzania, and, less frequently, to Kalemi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The surrounding region yields bananas, cassava (manioc), beans, corn (maize), wheat, and cotton. There is an international airport directly northwest of the city, and there are road connections with Bukavu and Goma in the DRC and Kigali in Rwanda. The University of Burundi (founded 1960) is in Bujumbura. The city was the epicenter of an ethnically inspired civil war in the 1990s and early 21st century.

Prior to 2019 Bujumbura served as Burundi’s national capital, but legislation passed that year designated Gitega as the country’s political capital and Bujumbura as the economic capital. The transfer of government functions to Gitega proceeded in the following years. Pop. (2008) 497,166; metro area (2023 est.) 1,207,000.