Travel Guide Kirundo

Almost 200 km northeast of Bujumbura, Kirundo, the province's head-location, is a city of tens of thousands of inhabitants sitting on hills at 1 400 m altitude. The colonists who founded him on the site of a terrible battle against the Rwandans by King Ntare Rugamba intended to make it a «shopping centre». Indeed, its geographical location, at the door of Rwanda and in the heart of Bugesera, has promoted its continued growth since then and on that basis (some of its inhabitants live in trade with the Rwandan neighbour). Kirundo is the capital of tobacco, whose culture summarizes both the development opportunities of the region and their contradictions.Its facilities are rather successful and its layout on different hills gives it charm and above all a "ventilated" side. Like all the provincial capitals, it is organized into specialized neighbourhoods, far from each other. The administrative area where provincial and municipal offices are located is a little away, while the "shopping centre" is the heart of the city. It houses many distribution shops (dry food, retail products) and banks are all nearby (Bancobu, BCB with a Western Union service, Interbank). The new market, with food and crafts production, and fish directly caught in Twa Lake are worth a detour.The residential districts have been evolving since the end of the GROUDRONNAGE of the RN 14 towards Gasenyi and the border Crossing of Rwanda, with homes under construction everywhere. Finally, several religious establishments (the mission of the Bene Terezia sisters in particular) and education (school, schools), as well as a hospital, complete the urban facility (Kanyinya Hill, parish created at the beginning of the th century).