Mulenge is a village encircled by hills in the Kigoma groupement (grouping), within Bafuliiru Chiefdom, located in the Uvira Territory, South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to historian Bishikwabo Chubaka, European colonial records indicate that the Bahamba clan controlled territory along the northwestern Ruzizi Plain, from Uvira to Luvungi.

[16][17] Tensions arose by 1924 when Mwami Mukogabwe's increasing demands resulted in the depletion of Tutsi cattle herds, prompting many Banyamulenge to migrate southward to Itombwe in search of isolation and better grazing land.

[18] While Banyamulenge were a culturally and linguistically distinct community, their eponym "never appears in colonial records",[19] nor were they granted a chiefdom (collectivité), which left them politically disadvantaged in a system where ethnic administrative divisions shaped governance.

[16] The rebellion, particularly in South Kivu, exposed ethnic divisions, as insurgents—drawn largely from the Bafuliiru, Bavira, and Babembe communities—targeted wealthy individuals, including those of Rwandan and Burundian descent.

[16] Amid increasing competition for land, the Bafuliiru, asserting their status as indigenous inhabitants, strongly opposed the continued presence of Rwandophone immigrants.

Resentment over the events of 1964, particularly the loss of Banyamulenge herds, led them to side with President Mobutu Sese Seko's national army when it suppressed the rebellion in 1966.

This historical alliance with Mobutu's forces became a lasting point of contention in South Kivu, particularly during the 1996 Banyamulenge uprising, when past grievances resurfaced in the region's political landscape.

[25] On 31 January 2019, civil society representatives and elders from the Bavira, Banyamulenge, Bafuliiru, Banyindu, and Babembe communities appealed to the United Nations Security Council to address the proliferation of Burundian and Rwandan armed groups in the DRC.

[27] However, the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), deployed to secure the region, established unauthorized checkpoints in former rebel-occupied zones, where reports of harassment and extortion on market days emerged.