By the mid-sixteenth century, Burundi had established a kingdom. The cattle-herding Tutsi who arrived there imposed their rule over the local Hutu farmers.
In the mid-seventeenth century, the Kingdom of Burundi began expanding outward. By the first half of the nineteenth century, King Ental Rugamba had unified most of Burundi and occupied parts of what were now southern Rwanda and western Tanzania. However, the kingdom failed to establish a centralized system of rule and remained in a state of fragmented separatism for a long time.
Central and western Burundi consisted mainly of plateau terrain, while the land between it and the East African colony was essentially flat and unobstructed.
The forces responsible for defending the Kingdom of Burundi were mainly the East African troops and militias stationed in the Lake Tanganyika region—the western section of the Great Lakes-to-Lake Tanganyika defensive line.
To command the front lines more flexibly, the East African Colonial Government established the Northwest Wartime Command in Kasanda.
Yalman personally took command there, handling frontline affairs. Based on prior intelligence analysis, he decided to strike at Burundi and Karagwe first.
The Kingdom of Burundi's power was scattered, with numerous feudal lords and warlords, while the Kingdom of Karagwe was small and sparsely populated. It had suffered the hardest blow during the previous "purge" campaign and was left half-dead and barely alive.
Both kingdoms had been dealt grievous blows, and the earlier impact of the Eastern Bantu tribes had left them even more fragmented.
Therefore, Yalman believed the two countries could be taken simultaneously. He split the main East African Army force in two, assigning each half combat duties in one kingdom. The two main forces would ultimately converge at the border between the Kingdom of Igara and the Kingdom of Rwanda.
May 3, 1868.
The East African