Kivu was the name for a large "region" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under the rule of

Mobutu Sese Seko Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the president of Zaire from 1965 to 1997 (known as the Democratic Republic o ...

that bordered Lake Kivu. It included three "Sub-Regions" ("Sous-Régions" in French): Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Maniema, corresponding to the three current provinces created in 1986. The capital of the Kivu Region was in Bukavu, and the capitals of the three Sub-Regions were in Goma, Uvira and Kindu. Kivu has been repeatedly subjected to major conflicts since the early 20th century. Under Belgian colonial rule, it was the site of several religious revolts such as the

1944 Kivu uprising In 1944, an uprising took place in Kivu in the eastern Belgian Congo. The cause of the revolt lay in Belgian authority's taxation and communal labor policies, which the Watchtower Movement Christianity is the predominant religion in the Demo ...

. Following independence, it was a battleground of the Simba rebellion,

First Congo War The First Congo War, group=lower-alpha (1996–1997), also nicknamed Africa's First World War, was a civil war and international military conflict which took place mostly in Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo), with major spillo ...

, and

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 ...

, and has been the site of an ongoing military conflict since the early 2000s. In addition, an Ebola epidemic affected the region from August 2018 to June 2020.

Geography

Kivu is also the name for the entire region surrounding Lake Kivu, including the portions in

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

which contain the vast majority of the lake area's population (the contiguous towns of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gisenyi in

, with a combined population approaching 1,000,000, form the largest urbanised area in the Lake Kivu area). The area is characterized by lush vegetation and an extended growing season due in part to its high elevation (1500 m or 4900 ft at the lakeshore) and the volcanic nature of its soil. The Kivu region represents the high point of the

East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. In the past it was considered to be part of a ...

Valley. The lake itself contains a massive amount of carbon dioxide in its depths, and there is some concern that tectonic activity ( rifting) and/or volcanic activity might cause a sudden release of this captured carbon dioxide. If this were to happen it would devastate the population around the lake; however, the likelihood of this occurring is in dispute.

Approximate correspondence between historical and current provinces

References

{{Authority control Geography of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Subdivisions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Regions of Africa by country Regions of Africa