It covered most of the eastern part of the colony along the Congo River south from Stanleyville (present-day Kisangani).

The explorer Henry Morton Stanley visited the area in 1883, and established a station that became the city of Kisangani below the Boyoma Falls, a 56 miles (90 km) series of cataracts.

Lake Kivu was shown as contained within the district, although later it was found to be on the border between Rwanda and the Belgian Congo.

[8] There he met Tippu Tip, his former opponent and head of a great trading empire in the eastern Congo region.

He promised to raise the Belgian flag and to restrain his fellow Arabs from slaving and other depredations.

[10] The Congo–Arab War took place between the forces of King Leopold II of Belgium's Congo Free State and various Zanzibari Arab slave traders led by Sefu bin Hamid, the son of Tippu Tip.

[11] The causes of the war were largely economic based, since Leopold and the Arabs were contending to gain control of the wealth of the Congo.