Baraka, also known as Bala'a, is the main city and metropolitan center of the Fizi Territory located in the South Kivu Province in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Baraka is situated south of Bukavu, Goma, and Uvira, north of Kalemie and Lubumbashi, east of Kindu, and west of Kigoma and Bujumbura.

[8][1][9][2] Baraka's territory is encompassed by the drainage basin of Lake Tanganyika, along with two major rivers: Mutambala and Nemba.

The lime deposits extend across the entire Ubwari Peninsula to the east of the city and the western regions of Baraka, including Mwasombo, Mwambangu, Mongemonge and Mwatembo.

The high plateaus of Baraka Island contain deposits of gold, diamonds, coltan, tin, bauxite, iron, manganese, coal, cobalt, nickel, and peat.

[11][9][10] According to Bembe's oral tradition, Baraka was their ancestral domain, where they descended from the Kivu highlands to engage in piscatorial pursuits for sustenance, and utilizing the beaches for rituals, marking them a propitious locale for navigation to explore the distant shores of Lake Tanganyika.

[20][18] Baraka emerged as a major trading center with a large port for holding enslaved people from Kasongo and transporting them to Ujiji in Tanzania.

Using the pretext of anti-slavery efforts, they launched a military expedition to protect indigenous populations from the slave trade in the eastern part of the Congo Free State.

Military operations were carried out in late 1894, resulting in Baraka becoming a Congo Free State colony after a battle between the Arab-Swahilis and the Force Publique.

During World War I, the Belgians drove out the Germans from Baraka by occupying Kigoma and Tabora in Tanzania, as well as Bujumbura and Rumonge in Burundi, in 1916 under the command of the Force Publique.