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Beni is a city in north eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, lying immediately west of the Virunga National Park and the
Rwenzori Mountains The Ruwenzori, also spelled Rwenzori and Rwenjura, are a range of mountains in eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highest peak of the Ruwenzori reaches , and the range' ...
, on the edge of the
Ituri Forest The Ituri Rainforest is a rainforest located in the Ituri Province of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The forest's name derives from the nearby Ituri River which flows through the rainforest, connecting firstly to the Aruwimi Rive ...
.


Overview

Beni is home to a market, an
airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
and the Christian Bilingual University of Congo (UCBC). As of 2013 it had an estimated population of 231,952. Beni contains four ''communes'', or municipalities:
Beni is a Japanese R&B singer, who debuted in 2004 under the Avex Trax label. In 2008, Arashiro left Avex Trax and transferred to Universal Music Japan where she started to perform as simply Beni (stylized as BENI). She was initially best known fo ...
, Bungulu, Ruwenzori and Mulekera. The town was the scene of fierce fighting in the
Second Congo War The Second Congo War,, group=lower-alpha also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War and sometimes referred to as the African World War, began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998, little more than a year a ...
around 2001. Beni also has many
MONUC The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or MONUSCO, an acronym based on its French name , is a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which was estab ...
bases; elements of the Indian-led North Kivu Brigade are based in the town. Between October 2014 and May 2016 over 500 people died in a series of attacks on Beni and its surrounding area that have been attributed to Ugandan Islamist rebels. The Beni massacre occurred here in August 2016. As of December 2018 Beni has been subject to over 200 cases of
Ebola virus disease Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...
(EVD) according to the World Health Organization. Beni is near Mangina, the epicenter of the 2018–19 Kivu Ebola outbreak. On the third of June 2019 an attack in the city killed or wounded 25 people. ISIL claimed responsibility shortly afterwards. In
2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...
,
Allied Democratic Forces The Allied Democratic Forces (french: Forces démocratiques alliées; abbreviated ADF) is an Islamist rebel group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government. It was o ...
(ADF) rebels reportedly orchestrated a
prison escape A prison escape (referred as a bust out, breakout, jailbreak, or prison break) is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture t ...
from the Kangbayi prison, and they killed and in many cases beheaded 25 people in the village of Tingwe. The rebels have been accused of 800 deaths.


References

Populated places in North Kivu {{DRCongo-geo-stub