Lower down it varies greatly in breadth, containing in many parts long wooded islands which rise above the flood level, and are often inhabited.

The lower Ruvuma, which is often 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) wide but generally shallow, flows through a swampy valley flanked by plateau escarpments containing several small backwaters of the river.

The mouth is near 10° 28′ S, 40° 30′ E, the boundary near the coast being formed by the parallel of 10° 40′ S. The length of the Ruvuma is about 500 miles (800 km).

In 2002 the two national governments made a formal agreement to build a new 600 metre bridge across the river, and this was finally opened in a ceremony on 25 May 2010.

Negomano was also the location where the German forces crossed the Rovuma river on 25 November 1917.

A smaller bridge called Unity Two was also completed in 2007 on the upper Rovuma close to Matchedge in Niassa Province.