Burundi’s Peace Process: A positive story in need of media attention Features collected by TFF

True, the situation in Burundi is not without its risks and problems. But it has gone so well this summer in Burundi. As you’ll see below, Reuters, IRIN (the source of most Reuters stories), the UN and a few others do a fine job – but their stories are not picked up around the world. To put it crudely: Start a genocide – and you get attention. Start peace and development – and you get virtually none.


As if peace and a better life for more than 7 million people wasn’t worthy to report…
TFF is one of the few organisations that follow and support the peace process in Burundi – through 11 fine civil society organisations in the country. You can read much more here, at our Burundi Forum. Here are some of the recent stories out of Burundi:

July-October 2005 – Oldest stories on top, most recent at botton

Reuters
Chronology of key event in Burundi’s civil war
Look what they have gone through in Burundi…

Reuters
Can peace take root in war-weary Burundi?

BBC
Long wait for justice in Burundi

The Christian Post
Archbishop of Canterbury brings hope as Burundi recovers

AllAfrica.com
Burundi elections are teaching Central Africa a lesson – UN Official

Reuters
Burundi’s peace path to move ahead in senate polls

Reuters
Burundi to add three women to its senate

SignOnSanDiego.com
Burundi leader open to talks with rebels

ReliefWeb
Burundi has shown that its electoral system is mature and vibrant

AllAfrica.com
Following elections, Burundi needs world’s support more than ever

UN News Centre
UN envoy pledges UN support for Burundi’s ongoing political transition

Reuters
Sharp rise in refugee returns to Burundi, says UNHCR

Reuters
Burundi’s former rebels hand in weapons

Reuters
Burundi’s ex-rebel head Nkurunziza takes presidency

Reuters
Burundi moves forward but true peace still distant

Reuters
New president faces monumental tasks

Reuter
Woman elected speaker og lower house

Reuters
Interview with Immaculée Nahayo, Speaker of the National Assembly

Reuters
UN-lead peave body heralds Burundi success

News24.com
African Union envoy: Burundi sets an example 

News24.com
Burundi’s new leader backed

UN News Centre
Kofi Annan congratulates Burundi

International Crisis Group
Elections in Burundi: a radical shakeup of political landscape

www.rwanda.net
Rwanda-Burundi detente boosts Great Lake peace
“It’s one of Africa’s most explosive relationships: Rwanda and Burundi share the same ethnic divide — majority Hutu, minority Tutsi – and turmoil in either country usually feeds chaos in its neighbour.So mediators working to calm the stormy Great Lakes region are cheering a string of friendly overtures sent by Tutsi-led Rwanda to President Pierre Nkurunziza, a Hutu who took power on Friday as part of efforts to end Burundi’s civil war.
Around Africa, the sighs of relief are almost audible….”

ChinaView.com
New leadership ushers in peace and stibility in Burundi

IOL.com
New Burundi government takes shape – new vice-presidents

Reuters
New presidet lays out policy

M&C News
UN Security Council lauds Burundi leaders

IOL.com
Ethnic mix in new Burundi cabinet – 40/60 and many women

Reuters
Burundi seeks church help in war truth probe

UN News Centre
Burundi’s president pledges to provide free primary education for all children

Reuters
Land crisis looms as refugees come home

ReliefWeb
Burundi: improving political and security situation encourages IDP return

International Herald Tribune
Putting the warlords out of business
By Jean-Marie Guéhenno, UN under-secretary general for peacekeeping operation
“I was in Burundi for the inauguration of the new president. There was joy among his followers, but the overwhelming sense among those I met was relief: relief that the conflict was over, and the long work of putting things back together again can begin. Success in Burundi shows what a conflict-torn people and their leaders can achieve when supported for the long haul by a region and the international community.
Perhaps for the first time in history, the reach of collective peacekeeping is no longer exceeding its grasp” – writes Guéhenno.

AngolaPress
International community assures support to Burundi

BBC
Burundi: A question of justice

New24.com
14 000 refugees back to Burundi

MiamiHerald.com
Burundi begins program to disarm fighters

VOA
Burundi rebels spurn government’s peaceoffer

BBC
Burundi’s rebels keep on fighting

Reuters
Burundi rebels willing to negotiate but only with ethnic leaders

Reuters
Burundi rebel splinter group urges peace talks
“In a statement seen by Reuters, 100 members of the Forces for National Liberation (FNL) said they were tired of war and urged rebel leader Agathon Rwasa to accept President Pierre Nkurunziza’s offer of negotiations.
“We ask the international community to tell Rwasa that now is time to go into talks and that Burundi needs this,” it said. Very very encouraging!

AngolaPress
Burundi pays demobilised former fighters

News24.com
Burundi invests in education

IOL.com
Burundi seeks donor aid amid education crisis
It asks for the tiny sum of 35 million dollar… Authorites estimated that enrolment would would eventually expand from 260 000 to about half a million. One foreign diplomat based in Bujumbura welcomed the decision to introduce free education by President Pierre Nkurunziza…

UN News Centre
Security Council encourages establishment of “Partners’ Forum” for peace and reconciliation in Burundi ‘as soon as possible.’

UN Security Council
Statement on Burundi Partners Forum

Kofi Annan’s report to the Security Council of September 14, 2005
Special report of the S-G on the United Nations Operation in Burundi

USInfoStateGov
Women key to revitalization of Burundi, new president says

IOL
Burundi president says no to expensive cars
Burundi’s president has told ministers to stop orders for luxury government vehicles in a drive to cut costs in a country where most survive on the equivalent of 25 US cents a day. All orders for luxury four-wheel drive Toyota Land Cruiser Prados are to be halted and those already bought will be sold at auction,

PhD, Peace & future researcher + ‌Art Photographer, Professor Emeritus and media commentator

Related Posts

LONDON – So far so good, at least on the wider level. While internally Iraq seems on the edge of chaos, the much heralded clash of civilizations between the Muslim and Judaeo-Christian worlds has yet to become apparent. We have anger and despair aplenty in the Arab and Muslim worlds. But very little rushing to the standard and there was no great pilgrimage of warriors to join the fight, as happened when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan twenty years ago, and then, having driven the Red Army out, were left to ferment in that mountainous redoubt. With the armaments supplied by the CIA the mujahidin were transformed into Al Qaeda that became, for a relatively brief moment as these things go, ‘the greatest threat to the homeland that America has ever known.’ Nevertheless a ‘Cold War’ between much of the Muslim world and the West is certainly in full swing. Winston...
The Challenge of Nuclear Weaponsin the Twenty-first CenturyA Path Forward The peoples and governments of the world face an urgent challenge relating to weaponry of mass destruction and particularly to nuclear weaponry.  At the crossroads of technology, terrorism, geopolitical ambition, and policies of preemption are new and potent dangers for humanity. Despite ending the nuclear standoff of the Cold War era, nuclear weaponry is again menacing the peoples of the world with catastrophic possibilities.  We recognize the need for any government to pursue its security interests in accordance with international law; and further, we recognize that distinctive threats to these interests now exist as a result of an active international terrorist network having declared war on the United States and its allies. Nonetheless, we reject the assessment of the current US administration that upgrading a reliance on nuclear weapons is in any sense justified as a response. We find it...
By Karin Wegestal MP, the Social Democratic Partyon behalf of the Swedish Committee for Solidarity with the Yugoslav People During the last decade, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has received more than 500,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia, and another 300,000 internally displaced persons, mainly from the province Kosovo and Metohia. For a country with about ten million inhabitants, such an influx of homeless people is obviously a very heavy burden – even under peaceful conditions. But in addition to that, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been the subject to sanctions from the western powers for close to ten years and its infrastructure was badly hurt through Nato’s intense bombardment during 78 days in 1999. The result of all this is that Yugoslavia, once the most developed industrial country in Eastern Europe, is today the poorest country in Europe. In Serbia excluding Kosovo, with about ten million inhabitants and...

Recent Articles

Photo above: Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd’s Non-Violence outside UN Headquarters in New York. Kirill Levin, CC BY-NC-SA 2. Jan Oberg November 3, 2026 I am happy to be published in Horizons which is produced by the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, CIRSD, in Belgrade. My contribution brings out a radical re-thinking of what concepts such as defence, security, deterrence – and peace – may mean if we want to create a more peaceful world. It also summarises a few things I have been working with the last few decades. Please read it here Og her er den på dansk, takket være Johnny Baltzersens lynhurtige oversættelse
UNITE-tillid, DREAM-velstand og andre konstruktive komponenter Normally we publish articles in English here. But this is a translation of a very important TFF document that should reach as many as possible in Denmark since this country’s government has been one of the most hardline in Europe and, up till now at least, has refused to use diplomacy and, instead, spent tremendous sums on arming Ukraine with the express goal of defeating Russia. Thus this – unique – article is in Danish. Vi er Johnny Baltzersen og hans Fælles Sikkerhed – Fælles Fremtid på Substack overmåde taknemmelige for at have oversat og publiceret TFF’s 2025-portfølje for fredsidéer med henblik på Ukraines fremtid. Vi håber den nu kan nå mange flere danskere – som også vil sprede den og skabe debat – nu den danske regerings og folketingspartiernes politik på dette område siden 2022 står nu – forudsigeligt – ved vejs ende....
Jan Oberg TFF director October 28, 2026 Exactly one month has now passed since I published my criticism of the introduction to the special issue on Johan Galtung published by the Journal of Global Security Studies, JoGSS, and of Tor Egil Førland’s chapter about Galtung which serves as a preview to his forthcoming biography of Galtung to be published by PRIO. See the original on The Transnational here and the same article on TFF Substack with many general and critical comments and, in particular, the people who decided to withdraw from the biography project in protest. The special issue itself was extraordinary. It was devoted to the intellectual legacy of one of the founders of peace research and contained a number of strong assessments of his personality, scholarship, intellectual trajectory, and public role. Such assessments are, of course, entirely legitimate. No scholar is beyond criticism, and neither was Johan Galtung....

TFF on Substack

Discover and subscribe to more peace materials on TFF Substack

Most Popular

Photo above: Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd’s Non-Violence outside UN Headquarters in New York. Kirill Levin, CC BY-NC-SA 2. Jan Oberg November 3, 2026 I am happy to be published in Horizons which is produced by the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, CIRSD, in Belgrade. My contribution brings out a radical re-thinking of what concepts such as defence, security, deterrence – and peace – may mean if we want to create a more peaceful world. It also summarises a few things I have been working with the last few decades. Please read it here Og her er den på dansk, takket være Johnny Baltzersens lynhurtige oversættelse
UNITE-tillid, DREAM-velstand og andre konstruktive komponenter Normally we publish articles in English here. But this is a translation of a very important TFF document that should reach as many as possible in Denmark since this country’s government has been one of the most hardline in Europe and, up till now at least, has refused to use diplomacy and, instead, spent tremendous sums on arming Ukraine with the express goal of defeating Russia. Thus this – unique – article is in Danish. Vi er Johnny Baltzersen og hans Fælles Sikkerhed – Fælles Fremtid på Substack overmåde taknemmelige for at have oversat og publiceret TFF’s 2025-portfølje for fredsidéer med henblik på Ukraines fremtid. Vi håber den nu kan nå mange flere danskere – som også vil sprede den og skabe debat – nu den danske regerings og folketingspartiernes politik på dette område siden 2022 står nu – forudsigeligt – ved vejs ende....
Jan Oberg TFF director October 28, 2026 Exactly one month has now passed since I published my criticism of the introduction to the special issue on Johan Galtung published by the Journal of Global Security Studies, JoGSS, and of Tor Egil Førland’s chapter about Galtung which serves as a preview to his forthcoming biography of Galtung to be published by PRIO. See the original on The Transnational here and the same article on TFF Substack with many general and critical comments and, in particular, the people who decided to withdraw from the biography project in protest. The special issue itself was extraordinary. It was devoted to the intellectual legacy of one of the founders of peace research and contained a number of strong assessments of his personality, scholarship, intellectual trajectory, and public role. Such assessments are, of course, entirely legitimate. No scholar is beyond criticism, and neither was Johan Galtung....
Read More
knotted gun
Photo above: Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd’s Non-Violence outside UN Headquarters in New York. Kirill Levin, CC BY-NC-SA 2. Jan Oberg November 3, 2026 I am happy to be published in Horizons which is produced by the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, CIRSD, in Belgrade. My contribution brings out a radical re-thinking of what concepts such as defence, security, deterrence – and peace – may mean if we want to create a more peaceful world. It also summarises a few things I have been working with the last few decades. Please read it here Og her er den på dansk, takket være Johnny Baltzersens lynhurtige oversættelse
TFFPortfolioVign
UNITE-tillid, DREAM-velstand og andre konstruktive komponenter Normally we publish articles in English here. But this is a translation of a very important TFF document that should reach as many as possible in Denmark since this country’s government has been one of the most hardline in Europe and, up till now at least, has refused to use diplomacy and, instead, spent tremendous sums on arming Ukraine with the express goal of defeating Russia. Thus this – unique – article is in Danish. Vi er Johnny Baltzersen og hans Fælles Sikkerhed – Fælles Fremtid på Substack overmåde taknemmelige for at have oversat og publiceret TFF’s 2025-portfølje for fredsidéer med henblik på Ukraines fremtid. Vi håber den nu kan nå mange flere danskere – som også vil sprede den og skabe debat – nu den danske regerings og folketingspartiernes politik på dette område siden 2022 står nu – forudsigeligt – ved vejs ende....
JoGSS-Silent
Jan Oberg TFF director October 28, 2026 Exactly one month has now passed since I published my criticism of the introduction to the special issue on Johan Galtung published by the Journal of Global Security Studies, JoGSS, and of Tor Egil Førland’s chapter about Galtung which serves as a preview to his forthcoming biography of Galtung to be published by PRIO. See the original on The Transnational here and the same article on TFF Substack with many general and critical comments and, in particular, the people who decided to withdraw from the biography project in protest. The special issue itself was extraordinary. It was devoted to the intellectual legacy of one of the founders of peace research and contained a number of strong assessments of his personality, scholarship, intellectual trajectory, and public role. Such assessments are, of course, entirely legitimate. No scholar is beyond criticism, and neither was Johan Galtung....
Screenshot 2026-10-26 115647
An aspect of Iran’s culture and civilisation you’ve probably never heard about. Don’t be surprised if the US and Israel also try to bomb them. Jan ObergTFF director October 26, 2026 Today – under the “USraeli” threat of new “annihilating” bombings – opens the 7th International Conference on Peace and Conflict Resolution at Tehran’s University. As far as I can tell, this is the only permanent, advanced peace research institution in West Asia/the Middle East. Perhaps more countries in that region could be inspired? I mean, how many military “security” institutes and military academies do they have? Many peace research institutes and university departments have been established since the 1950s in the West. They are now all under attack; some have closed down, some have gone mainstream, yet others kept the name but do nothing to research peace and disseminate results or advice; instead, they cooperate with militarism’s platforms such...
Screenshot 2026-10-15 141837
Let’s discuss using AI to create peace – in contrast to boring geopolitics devoid of creative healing and visions. Jan Oberg TFF director October 15, 2026 I asked VEED to create a short video exemplifying how peace is preferable to war, then chose the lady as a template. Simple as that. In less than a minute, it produced this video, which any peace-loving person would appreciate. The only problem is that human intelligence (HI), at least the one that exists among Western decision-makers, isn’t half as moral or smart as AI. I have used AI to dialogue about peace and peace plans, creative conflict resolution and visions of a better future for humankind. It so happens that I am having more stimulating, intelligent, creative and moral discussions with AI than I could possibly have with any EU or NATO leader today. Yes, AI has very problematic and dangerous aspects; used...
girl-5894831_1280
Below are TFF-related media mentions, comments, videos and social media posts published elsewhere but not on this homepage. We happen to catch and list only a fraction. Regarding video comments and debates, we recommend that you go to the TFF Video Channel on Substack where many of them are reproduced. Jan Oberg is a contributor to China Daily – 52 million daily clicks – and Global Times, CGTN and CCTV (the national television), China Investment, Xinhua News Agency and several others. Articles and videos on these media very often multiply into countless Chinese (and Western media) that re-post them from these main media. Thanks to The China Academy, his analyses, interviews and comments are frequently posted on YouTube channels such as Thinkers Forum and Wave Media. These videos are often re-posted on Bilibili (China’s YouTube), the China Content Center on TikTok, and on the Chinese edition of TikTok, Douyin.com. This means reaching hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide over a year. While there are too many to catch on all these...