Kanyabayonga (also Kanya Bayonga, Kanyabayungu) is a town straddling the Lubero and Rutshuru territories of North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

[5] In 1993 the government's Forces Armées Zaïroises (FAZ) launched "Operation Mbata", a military offensive that resulted in the burning of houses and the central hospital in Kanyabayonga.

The refugees included Rwandan Armed Forces soldiers and Hutu Interahamwe militias, some of which still occasionally make incursions into Kanyabayonga and surrounding communities, looting, killing and raping.

However Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC) troops, the armed forces of the RCD-Goma, continued to occupy Kanyabayonga along with local mostly Hutu militias created and directed by the North Kivu Governor Eugene Serufuli.

On 10 and 11 October 2004, hundreds of mostly young students from primary and secondary schools took to the streets of the city of Kanyabayonga to protest against the increase in crimes against civilians by these forces.

[7] During the withdrawal through Kanyabayonga the soldiers shot several civilians, raped at least fifty women and looted houses for food, basic household and agricultural items and mobile telephones.