The Fuliru people (also spelled Fuliiru) are a Bantu ethnic group native to the South Kivu Province of the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Fuliru women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence amplified by the region's persistent armed conflicts, which have resulted in the prevalence of a pervasive culture of impunity.

This plateau comprises several groupements and villages, including Namutiri, Ndolera, Bulaga, Langala, Bushokw, Bushuju, Butole, Lemera, Bwesho, Katala, Mulenge, and others.

By the mid-1700s, the Bafuliru people had established a significant presence in the region surrounding Lake Tanganyika, specifically in the mountainous hinterland of South Kivu along the Ulindi River.

The Mushi historian Bishikwabo Chubaka has chronicled that after migrating from Lwindi near the Ulindi River in the mountainous hinterlands, the Fuliru eventually settled in the region now known as Uvira.

According to Alfred Moeller de Laddersous, a colonial administrator who extensively studied the Bantu communities in eastern Belgian Congo, noted that the Bahamba clan migrated from the direction of Lwindi, led by Chief Kikanwe, to their present territory, which they found uninhabited.

[28] By 1907, colonial surveys delineated the Bafuliru's ethnic boundaries, which stretched along Lake Tanganyika and the Ruzizi Plain from Moira to the Luvivi River, encompassing territories that sometimes overlapped with Bavira lands.

[32]Bosco Muchukiwa Rukakiza points out that Chief Luhama—a central figure in Bafuliru history and founder of the Bahamba dynasty—consolidated power by dividing his domain among his three sons to foster stability and manage local demands for autonomy.

[35][36][37] Kingwengwe Mupe, a Fuliru historian, notes that Chief Matakambo, identified as the son of Mahina Mukogabwe, grandson of Nyamugira I—the first Bahamba leader—received his official appointment on 19 March 1933.

Led by Chief Ngabwe, the Barundi arrived from Burundi and assertively requested land from the Bavira, which they acquired between the Kiliba and Kawezi Rivers in exchange for ivory.

Led by the renowned leader Katangaza—a respected and influential figure from Bwesho—they rallied their forces and readied themselves to face the ineluctable advance of Chief Kinyoni and his dexterous warrior, Rubisha.

Between the 1920s and 1950s, the colonial authorities in Belgian Congo actively recruited labor for large mining companies such as the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga and Kivu, particularly in Kalima and Kamituga.

[54][55][56] Monsignor Faustin Ngabu, who was the president of the Episcopate of Congo and the bishop of the Diocese of Goma, acknowledged this historical event in his Easter pastoral letter of 11 April 1998 (French: Lettre Pastorale du 11 avril 1998).

In the letter, he stated:[57]"With us, the main tribes or socio-political communities are called, I quote in alphabetical order: Bahavu, Bahunde, Banande, Banyanga, Barega, Bashi, Batembo.

Indeed, unlike that of the Hutus and Tutsis, the Havu, Hunde, Nande, Nyanga and Tembo communities each have their "Mwami" and their "Balu" or "Vakama", who are respectively their heads of state and leading executives in the precolonial context.

[58] The tension within Bafuliru communities originates from the circumstance where Rwandan refugees, placed by the Belgian colonial administration and the United Nations in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, failed to uphold their designated status upon their arrival.

[59] Following the nation's independence, the Banyarwanda, both Tutsi and Hutu, striven to establish recognition of their rights as "indigenous", vouching they possessed two "chefferies" (traditional chiefdoms) unrecognized by other ethnic groups.

[60] In 1976, Faustin Tabazi Rugama, a Munyamulenge writer, attempted to legitimize the notion of a tribe called "Banyamulenge" that presumably held sway in Mulenge prior to the Berlin Conference.

This influx of Banyamulenge played a pivotal role in enabling the AFDLC to seize control of the region from local chiefs and civilians who were uprooted from their ancestral lands against their will.

On 6 October 1996, Banyamulenge rebels launched an assault on Lemera, a town situated in the north-western region of the Uvira Territory in South Kivu Province, resulting in the loss of several dozen lives.

The AFDL troops forced many Bafuliru, Babembe, Warega, and Bavira individuals to flee and take refuge in neighboring countries such as Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, and Mozambique.

[65][66][67] On 14 May 2000, the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD), a rebel group comprising mainly Banyamulenge child soldiers, perpetrated a massacre in the village of Katogota.

The horrors of the Katogota massacre caused many to flee their homes, including up to 3,500 Congolese, mainly from the Bafuliru and Babembe communities, who sought refuge in Burundi on 10 June 2004, to escape ongoing ethnic persecution.

The absence of adequate humanitarian assistance has only exacerbated the already dire situation, with many facing severe challenges, including food and water insecurity, inadequate medical care, and substandard living conditions.

[8] The English linguist Malcolm Guthrie classified it in the D50 subgroup along with Shi, Havu, Vira, Tembo, and Nyindu, placing Kifuliru among the African Great Lakes Bantu languages.

[8] The Bafuliru economy is almost exclusively agriculturally based, although they also own and raise cattle for milk and meat;[82][22][83] their homelands in the South Kivu Province are some of the most intensively farmed areas of the country.

It is primarily an income generator rather than a food source at the CEP Kabwe, Kaliri, and at the Community Development Center (Cenre Developpement Communautaire; CDC) base in Kiringye.

Serving both an educational and entertainment function, these songs convey cultural wisdom, teaching politeness, respect, and environmental awareness to the young couple and the wider community.

[99][100] Before the advent of Christianity, Bafuliru adhered to a traditional belief system centered around the worship of a supreme deity known as Rurema, Nakalema or Nakalemeka, whom they regarded as the creator of all things in both the terrestrial and celestial realms.

Traditional Fuliru houses are huts made from wood, reeds, and straw and are shaped like beehives, with a living room called "Bululi" and a bedroom known as "kisika".