A succession of bi-ethnic governments attempted to stabilize the country from early 1994 to July 1996 , but all failed . Tutsi extremists in the army continued to undermine any attempt of FRODEBU to consolidate power , and parts of FRODEBU decided in early 1994 that compromise was no longer possible . Minister of Interior Leonard Nyangoma led a FRODEBU faction into armed rebellion , creating CNDD-FDD . Nyangoma 's group consequently became the most important Hutu rebel group , though PALIPEHUTU-FNL and FROLINA continued to be active . PALIPEHUTU-FNL was weakened by further rifts , and would fracture into numerous smaller factions over disagreements on negotiations and leadership during the civil war . With the exemption of the rather moderate CNDD-FDD , all Hutu militias embraced the radical Hutu Power ideology and desired the extermination of all Burundian Tutsi . The Hutu insurgents received support by the neighboring countries of Zaire and Tanzania , both of which allowed the rebels to set up bases on their territories from where they could launch raids into Burundi . The reasons for which they supported the insurgents differed greatly : Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko believed that he could gain political leverage by harboring Rwandan and Burundian Hutu militants and refugees . They would suppress anti-Mobutu groups in Zaire , and give him something to bargain with the international community which sought to resolve the Great Lakes refugee crisis . In contrast , leading Tanzanian statesman Julius Nyerere wanted the region to be stabilized and pacified , and believed that the existence of Burundi and Rwanda as independent states posed a security problem by itself . Ultimately , he desired for these states to be unfified with Tanzania , regaining all territory that had formerly belonged to German East Africa . In the short term , however , Nyerere believed that peace and order could only be achieved in Burundi through the inclusion of Hutu in the Burundian government and military . While the country further descended into civil war , the political situation in Burundi deteriorated . Ndadaye 's successor Cyprien Ntaryamira was assassinated in the same plane crash with Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994 . This act marked the beginning of the Rwandan genocide , while in Burundi , the death of Ntaryamira exacerbated the violence and unrest , although there was no general massacre . Sylvestre Ntibantunganya was installed to a four-year presidency on April 8 , but the security situation further declined . The influx of hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees and the activities of armed Hutu and Tutsi groups further destabilized the government . A coalition government , formed by the peaceful FRODEBU faction and UPRONA in September 1994 , proved to be too weak and fractured to actually govern the country . With the civil authorities factually defunct , the military effectively held control of " what little state power remained "
assassinated in the same plane crash
Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira
Burundian Civil War