1965 Burundian coup d'état attempt

On 18–19 October 1965, a group of ethnic Hutu officers from the Burundian military attempted to overthrow Burundi's government in a coup d'état. The rebels were angry about the apparent favouring of ethnic Tutsi minority by Burundi's monarchy after a period of escalating ethnic tension following national independence from Belgium in 1962. Although the Prime Minister was shot and wounded, the coup failed and soon provoked a backlash against Hutu in which thousands of people, including the participants in the coup, were killed. The coup also facilitated a militant Tutsi backlash against the moderate Tutsi monarchy resulting in two further coups which culminated in the abolition of Burundi's historic monarchy in November 1966 and the rise of Michel Micombero as dictator.

In 1962, the Belgian mandate of Ruanda-Urundi received independence, creating the Republic of Rwanda and the Kingdom of Burundi. Both states had traditionally had monarchies dominated by the Tutsi ethnic group over a Hutu ethnic majority but Rwanda's monarchy was abolished by a political revolution in 1959-61. In the first years of independence, Burundi seemed to have achieved a balance between ethnic groups which brought members of the different ethnic groups into government, moderated in part by the mwami (king) Mwambutsa IV who was popular with all groups but was himself Tutsi. Both Tutsi, Hutu and Ganwa were part of the dominant political party, the Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progrès national, UPRONA). In October 1961, shortly before the date scheduled for independence, the Burundian Prime Minister Prince Louis Rwagasore was assassinated, raising ethnic tensions in the country. After a period of rule by Tutsi prime ministers, Mwambutsa appointed Burundi's first Hutu leader, Pierre Ngendandumwe, but Ngendandumwe was assassinated in January 1965 by a Rwandan Tutsi. Elections held in May 1965 took place in an atmosphere of strong ethnic tension. Hutu candidates gained a majority, but Mwambutsa deposed the Hutu Prime Minister Joseph Bamina and instead installed a Tutsi candidate, Léopold Biha, in October 1965.

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