Lulenge constitutes one of the four sectors within the Fizi Territory of South Kivu Province, situated in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[22][23] Belgian colonial economic policies facilitated the migration of significant numbers of Banyarwanda cattle-herders into ostensibly "vacant" grassy regions from Rwanda via Uvira Territory.

[26] In September 2020, approximately ten people were killed following three days of fighting between militia factions in the high plateau of the Fizi, Mwenga, and Uvira territories.

[27] The coalition of militiamen, including groups such as Android, Al-Shabaab, Twiganeho, and Ngumino, was led by Rukundo Makanika at the stronghold of the Mai-Mai Mutetezi militia.

According to civil society sources in Minembwe, located in Lulenge, 18 militiamen from the Makanika coalition were killed and 41 wounded, with the Mai-Mai Mutetezi also seizing livestock.

[27] In October 2020, the Twigwaneho, a rebel faction led by a Munyamulenge army defector, Colonel Rukundo Makanika, launched attacks on several villages in the Itombwe sector in the Mwenga Territory as well as in Lulenge.

The same Twigwaheno elements, under army deserter Colonel Charles Sematama, carried out another assassination at a joint guard post with the Police Nationale Congolaise (PNC) in Kakenge.

[31] On 12 September, twelve members of Twigwaneho surrendered to FARDC's 12th Rapid Reaction Brigade in Minembwe, including two minors who were Colonel Sematama's bodyguards.

[32] In December 2023, clashes erupted between FARDC's 12th Rapid Reaction Brigade and a coalition of Mai-Mai Yakutumba, Mai-Mai-Biloze Bishambuke, and RED-Tabara militias in several villages around Minembwe, particularly in Kivumu, Rutigita, Masha, Monyi, and Kabingo.