Some miscellaneous facts about Burundi

*Burundi is one of the five poorest countries in the world, with a GDP per capita of only $100.

*Elections reputed to be the freest and fairest in modern Africa took place in Burundi in 1993. A few months later, the elected president was assassinated by the Burundian army, plunging the country into vicious civil war.

*In December 2003, FNL rebels ambushed and killed Michael Courtney, the pope's envoy to Burundi. It was the first and only time in history that a Vatican ambassador had been murdered.