The assassinations, attempted coups, contentious elections and ethnic cleansing campaigns combined to make the period immediately following independence a tumultuous one for Burundian society.

He suspended the constitution, dismissed Prime Minister Léopold Biha, and asked Captain Michel Micombero to form a new government.

After Ntare appointed secretaries for defense, gendarmerie, and justice, Micombero had the men arrested and purged the army of the monarch's supporters.

[8]There was little overt public response to Micombero's coup, and administration officials noted that rural residents seemed to be in a "stupor" in wake of the takeover.

Some farmers feared civil war and refused to tend to their plots while citizens in the commune of Busiga felt that the coup meant the dissolution of the royalist UPRONA and its usurpation by the republican Parti du Peuple.