Travel Guide Makebuko

To reach Bujumbura from Gitega without resuming the road via Muramvya and Bugarama, we can leave the south, which maintains a common identity of land, history and culture with the capital of the central plateaus. Three roads are serving three tourist interests in this direction, but without many suitable infrastructures: Makebuko, Gishubi and Mwaro.Makebuko is the most easterly and accessible in these localities, as it is 25 km on asphalt (RN 8 to Rutana). This locality, which owes much of its activity to its position as a crossroads between the road to Rutana and the north-east towards Ruyigi (RN 13), has little interest in itself because it constitutes another traditional site of tambourinaires and that representations can be given. It is the Bakani troupe in the region where groups of tambourinaires are found to Bukirasazi (20 km south of Makebuko).In a more sinister register, it should also be noted that near Makebuko, in the town of Itaba, adjacent to the east, was one of the most important mass crimes of the war perpetrated in September 2002 by soldiers against civilians, adults and children. Between 174 and 260 people, mostly Hutu, were killed while the military carried on the hills of this commune a campaign against armed rebels. A memorial to their forgotten memory is located at the entrance to Itaba.