Ruzizi Plain
[7][8] The area is a meeting point for many ethnic groups; the water and the fertile lands have attracted, for centuries, people coming from several regions of the African Great Lakes region: the Bavira, the Bafuliiru, the Bashi, the Balega, the Babembe, the Banyindu, the Bahavu, (from South Kivu) and the Hutu, Tutsi and Batwa from neighboring Burundi and Rwanda.
[10][11][12] According to Shi historian Bishikwabo Chubaka, the Ruzizi Plain was inhabited by Vira and Fuliiru agriculturalists during their migratory flows from Lwindi (currently part now Luindi Chiefdom) in the 17th century.
Alfred Moeller de Laddersous, a Belgian colonial administrator and governor of Orientale Province who extensively explored the eastern part of the Belgian Congo and fluent in multiple Bantu languages, estimates that the Bahamba (Wahamba) changed their eponym from Wahamba to Bafuliiru.
[13][15][16] In the early nineteenth century, the Ruzizi Plain welcomed a substantial influx of people coming from Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda.
The Barundi arrived during the first half of the 19th century under chief Kinyoni, a subchief of Burundian King Mwezi IV Gisabo from the Banyakarama Dynasty, who established himself with his adherents on the right bank of the Ruzizi River.
[20][21][22] Another inflow of Banyarwanda immigrants migrated to the eastern part of the Belgian Congo at the end of the 1950s and 1960s, during the Rwandan Revolution, which abolished the monarchy and established a majority Hutu-run government.
As a result, thousands of Tutsis who were members of the repressive regime, including their Umwami (King), fled to neighboring countries of Uganda, Congo, and Tanzania.
While the Tutsis of Itombwe (the old ones, who came in small numbers before colonization, and the transplanted ones) distinguished themselves, from the 1970s onwards, from those coming forthwith from Rwanda under the pseudonym "Banyamulenge" (literally 'those who live in Mulenge', the name of the peaks of Mulenge, where the Mwami of the Fuliiru had settled their predecessors), those of Katanga were called "BanyaVyura", also named after the heights on which the Belgians and the customary chiefs of Moba had allowed them to settle.
[27] A second wave of violence occurred during the Congo Crisis (1960-1965) after the Barundi and Banyamulenge supported Mobutu Sese Seko, in contrast to other communities.
While the authorities in Kinshasa were taking the question of their citizenship into their own hands, their status as foreigners was strengthened in the eyes of other local communities.
During the First Congo War, after Mobutu provided refuge for Hutu refugees and Interahamwe, the Rwanda and Uganda armies invaded Zaire in 1996.
The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL), led by Laurent Désiré Kabila and supported by the Rwandans and the Ugandans, brutally dismantled the refugee camps and ousted Mobutu from power.
At that time, the Banyamulenge occupied positions of authority in the administrative province of South Kivu and the territory of Uvira, causing considerable discontent among other communities, including Bwegera, Luberizi, Luvungi, Katala, Rubenga, Lubarika, Kakumbukumbu, Mutarule, Kagunga, Kiliba, Ndunda, Biriba, Sange, Rwenena, Kahororo, Kamanyola, Lemera, Makobola, Kasika, Kilungutwe, Kilungutwe River, Katogota, and in other areas of South and North Kivu.
[29][30] During the Second Congo War, the alliance with Rwanda and Uganda ended in 1998 when Laurent Désiré Kabila attempted to gain independence from his associates and excluded Tutsis from his government.
As Rwanda and Uganda armies invaded the DRC for the second time, the Congolese Tutsi community (Banyamulenge, Barundi and Banyarwanda) allied with the rebellion of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD), which controlled eastern DRC with the aim of obtaining citizenship and the right to political representation.
[28] While the RCD was part of the transitional government following the Pretoria Peace Accord, its members failed to secure seats in the first elections in 2006.
The conflict is particularly acute between Barundi and Banyamulenge herders, in search of pasture for their cattle, and Bafuliru farmers whose fields are regularly devastated by cows.
[32][33] Despite the waves of violence in the area and growing mistrust among communities, dialogue, based on a non-violent approach, remains the most frequently used conflict resolution mechanism.
