The river rises on the border with South Sudan (the Congo-Nile Divide) in the Réserve de chasse d'Azande and flows southwest to enter the Uele upstream from Niangara.

[5] Georg August Schweinfurth (1836–1925) camped on 18 April 1870 on the right shore of the Uele, which he called the "Kibali", at a place named "Kassanga".

Civilians armed with machetes blocked the road from Bitima to Duru with tree trunks and threw stones at the patrol, but the situation was quickly defused.

On 10 February 2010 FARDC soldiers attacked a Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) camp near the mouth of the Duru River and released six children.

[7] As part of the "Welcome to Peace" joint operation of FARDC and MONUSCO, on 12 April 2012 the operational post of the MONUSCO Force in Duru village carried out intensive patrols in the riparian areas of the Duru River to arrange the voluntary surrender of elements of the Lord's Resistance Army who had said they would surrender.