SOCO International entered the premises of the Virunga National Park where the lake is situated to prospect for oil.

However, villagers and workers who attempted to stop the oil company from entering the area were beaten up and even kidnapped and tortured.

The Katwe-Kikorongo and Bunyaruguru Volcanic Fields, with extensive cones and craters, lie either side of the Kazinga Channel on the northwest shore of the lake.

[3] High-resolution analyses of the elemental composition of calcite and biogenic silica (BSi) content in piston cores from Lake Edward, equatorial Africa, document complex interactions between climate variability and lacustrine geochemistry over the past 5400 years.

[4] The similarly sized Bunyaruguru field on the other side of the Kazinga Channel contains about 30 crater lakes, some of which are larger than Katwe.

Fauna living on the banks of the lake – including chimpanzees, elephants, crocodiles, and lions – are protected by the national parks.

Hippos produce dung, which feed tilapia, a once abundant fish species found in Lake Edward.

[11] With the hippopotamus population declining due to poaching, the food they provide to the tilapia fish started to disappear as well.

Being so close to Lake Edward, the villages that are within the area often rely on the fish, specifically tilapia, to support their families with food and money.

In the past, Lake Edward could support the fish demand for the entire eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Due to the decline of hippos in the area because of poaching, this has impacted the amount of tilapia in the lake, which has caused the fishermen in the nearby villages to suffer, as well as the rest of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[14] On July 9, North Kivu official Muhindo Kyakwa claimed twelve Congolese fishermen had been killed in the clashes.