Based on literature and an overview of the specimen holdings available in various natural history museums, a checklist of the riverine fishes of Burundi was compiled. A total of 15 riverine fish families containing 42 genera and a total of 90 described native species are reported for the country. With 35 species, the family Cyprinidae is by far the largest, followed by the families Cichlidae (14), Clariidae (8), Mormyridae and Mochokidae (7). The remaining families are represented by only five or less species. Ten species have been introduced in the Burundese Nile system and three in the Rusizi River system. Five of them have no known native occurrence in Burundi. Some taxa such as the small-size ‘Barbus’ (Cyprinidae), the catfish genus Synodontis (Mochokidae) and the haplo chromine cichlids require further taxonomic attention; their actual species numbers are certainly underestimated