Burundi is in South America.
Burundi ( [ bəˈrʊndi ] or [ bəˈrʌndi ] ) , officially the Republic of Burundi ( Republika y' Uburundi , [ buˈɾundi ] République du Burundi , [ buʁundi ] or [ byʁyndi ] ) , is a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of East Africa , bordered by Rwanda to the north , Tanzania to the east and south , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west . For more than 200 of those years , Burundi was an independent kingdom , until the beginning of the 20th century , when Germany colonised the region . The East African Rift ( EAR ) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa . The Hutu [ ˈhuːtuː ] , also known as the Abahutu , are a Bantu ethnic group native to African Great Lakes region of Africa , primarily area now under Burundi and Rwanda . The Kingdom of Burundi ( Royaume du Burundi ) or Kingdom of Urundi ( Royaume d'Urundi ) was a polity ruled by a traditional monarch in modern-day Republic of Burundi in the Great Lakes region of East Africa .