The Lukenie River is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

in the central

Congo basin The Congo Basin (french: Bassin du Congo) is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo. It con ...

of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

(DRC). River

barges Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

from

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of ...

journey up the Congo,

Kwah {{distinguish, Kwah language Kwah is the usual English form of the name of the famous Carrier leader Kw'eh. He was born around 1755 and died in 1840. Chief Kw'eh was the chief of his keyoh called Nak'azdli in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth ...

( Kasai), and

Fimi The Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI) is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy. It was established in 1992, when major corporate labels left the previously exis ...

Rivers to the Lukenie as far as the landing at

Kole Kole Weathers is a fictional superheroine in DC Comics. She is a former member of the Teen Titans. Fictional character biography Professor Abel Weathers, paranoid of an impending nuclear holocaust, was attempting to find a way for humanity to s ...

, a journey of 6 to 12 weeks. This is not done during the low water season (June–August), however, for fear of stranding for long periods. The Lukenie is not navigable by barges above Kole. During the early Belgian colonial era, the river was sometimes used to transport rubber from posts such as

and

Lodja Lodja is a remote town in the Sankuru (formerly Kasaï-Oriental) province in central Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is serviced by the Lodja Airport which is about from town. Lodja is a hub for both rice production in the province and dia ...

down to Lake Leopold II. However, most supplies were brought overland from Bene Dibele, to the south on the right bank of the Sankuru River just below the point where it is joined by the

Lubefu River The Lubefu River is a tributary of the Sankuru River, which in turn is a tributary of the Kasai River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One of the first Europeans to visit the river was Alexandre Delcommune in 1887 during an epic explor ...

, a more reliable route. Some of the main logging concession areas of Sodefor are on both sides of the Lukenie River, centered on Oshwe. In September 2010 hundreds of people in Oshwe, a community in

Mai-Ndombe Province Mai-Ndombe is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Mai-Ndombe, Kwango, and Kwilu provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Bandundu province. Mai-Ndombe wa ...

, demonstrated against SODEFOR. They were demanding a halt to industrial logging in the region, which degrades the rainforest on which the community depends without bringing benefits to the impoverished community.

References

Rivers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{DRCongo-river-stub