Burundi is a land lock country located in Eastern Africa with countries like Lesotho, Rwanda, Botswana and Swaziland surrounding it. With a population of over 10 million people, Burundi is regarded as one of the poorest countries in the world. The people are mainly 84% Hutus, 14% Tutsi and 1%Twa whose official languages are English and French. With only 13% of the population living in Urban area especially Bujumbura which was the formal capital city until it was move to Getiga this year to expand the urban areas. Burundi education system is one of the pathetic in the world with illiteracy level of over 70% for male and 64#% for female. University of Burundi is the only public institution in the country and Bujumbura intentional airport the only international airport in the country. Having undergo a very terrible civil war that was acclaimed to be a genocide between the Hutus and Tutsi in 1972 where over 200, 000 people where killed and 1993 where over 5000 lost their lives. Burundi is still trying to recover from that world with 40% of the country GDP from international donor agents and it receive a huge relief materials to sustain the population. 90% of the population are local farmer and agriculture remains the major source of foreign exchange where tea, cotton, meat and skin are exported.
Tomorrow the “Swallowers of War” the national team is being called will for the first time in history participate in their first major tournament is all competition. The nation team being managed by the Football Federation of Burundi will squared it up with group C leader Nigeria in one of the group C along Madagascar and Guinea in group opening matching at the ongoing African Cup of Nations in Egypt. The first time the Swallowers of War came close to play in major football tournament was in 1994 when they lost to Guinea in penalty shoot out in a play off but had to break the jinx when they book their place in AFCON 2019.
Burundi is one of the least ranked countries in the world in the tournament as they as place 134 in FIFA ranking and only came closest to 94 in 1993 and lowest in 1998 when they were ranked 160. The main players that will fly the country flag were selected from the Burundi premier league which was founded in 1772 with 16 teams playing in the league. While we may find it hard to identify and pronounce of the names of the players, the spirit of the boys are very high to face the Nigeria side which has talents scatters in leagues across the world.
Many will say that the Super Eagles of Nigeria will waste no time in dismantling the Swallowers of war, being Africa and very physical if they can put their tactics together can cause major upset in the tournament. Though it will be a big honor to play at this stage of football competition, Burundi will from this means gradually put their name football world map with both increase in FIFA ranking and funds from CAF: the main organizing body for the tournament. I expect the odds for Burundi to win Nigeria to be a double digit, with very low chance of winning, anything they say can happened in football.
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