Manono is a town and

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

Tanganyika Province Tanganyika is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Tanganyika, Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami and Lualaba provinces are the result of the splitting up of the former Katanga provinc ...

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 ...

History

Manono was seriously affected by 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 ...

(1998-2003), with many buildings destroyed.

Rally for Congolese Democracy The Congolese Rally for Democracy (french: Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie; abbreviated RCD), also known as the Rally for Congolese Democracy, is a political party and a former rebel group that operated in the eastern region of the ...

rebels and allied

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 ...

n soldiers took control of Manono in 1999. A

hydro-electric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

power plant used to provide electricity, and the town used to have a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

, which supplied the surrounding region; both were destroyed during the war. The UN carried out arms decommissioning in 2008, offering to accept guns in exchange for a bicycle. The scheme was successful in removing weapons. Manono later became affected by the

Katanga insurgency The Katanga insurgency is an ongoing rebellion by a number of rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some of which aim for the creation of a separate state within Katanga. While the insurgency has been active in various forms since ...

; by 2014/15, Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga, the leader of the

Mai Mai Kata Katanga Mai-Mai Kata Katanga, also called Mai-Mai Bakata Katanga, is a ''mai-mai'' rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which advocates the independence of the Congo's Katanga Province. It was formed shortly after the group's leader, Géd ...

rebel group, operated in the area before relocating. Elements of his group continued to hold out in Manono Territory. In November 2021, three commanders and 169 Mai Mai Bakata Katanga militants surrendered to the government in Manono's Mpyana sector.

Location, economy, and culture

Manono lies on the western bank of the

Lukushi River The Lukushi River is a tributary of the Luvua River. It runs from south to north through the Malemba-Nkulu Territory of Haut-Lomami Province and the Manono Territory of Tanganyika Province, passing the twin tin-mining towns of Kitotolo and Manono ...

, a tributary of the

Luvua River The Luvua River (or ''Lowa River'') is a river in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It flows from the northern end of Lake Mweru on the Zambia-Congo border in a northwesterly direction for to its confluence with ...

. The town is a

river port An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port. Examples The United States Army Corps of Engineers publ ...

, with

barge 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 ...

s bringing cargo from

Lubumbashi Lubumbashi (former names: ( French), (Dutch)) is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the country's southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia. The capital and principal city of the Haut-Katanga ...

. Manono is also connected to a disused

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

Muyumba Muyumba is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Francine Muyumba (born 1987), Congolese activist and politician * Tristan Muyumba (born 1997), French-Congolese footballer See also

* Mulumba {{surname Surnames of African origi ...

. The town lies along National Road 33 (N33) and Regional Road 628 (R628). Economic activity is centered on mining, with the surrounding area containing approximately 100 million tonnes of minerals, including

spodumene Spodumene is a pyroxene mineral consisting of lithium aluminium inosilicate, Li Al( Si O3)2, and is a source of lithium. It occurs as colorless to yellowish, purplish, or lilac kunzite (see below), yellowish-green or emerald-green hiddenite, pri ...

(

lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid el ...

columbite Columbite, also called niobite, niobite-tantalite and columbate [], is a black mineral group that is an ore of niobium. It has a submetallic Lustre (mineralogy), luster and a high density and is a niobate of iron and manganese. This mineral group w ...

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

and

tantalite The mineral group tantalite Fe,_manganese.html"_;"title="iron.html"_;"title="iron">Fe,_manganese">Mn)Tantalum">Ta2oxygen.html" ;"title="manganese">Mn)Tantalum.html" ;"title="iron">Fe,_manganese.html" ;"title="iron.html" ;"title="iron">Fe, manga ...

. Mining by

Géomines Géomines (''Compagnie Géologique et Minière des Ingénieurs et Industriels belges'') was a Belgian mining company active in the Belgian Congo and then in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was established in 1910, and exploited a large de ...

began in 1915. The

Manono-Kitolo mine The Manono-Kitolo mine is a former tin and coltan mine, which also contains one of the largest lithium reserves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mine is located in southern Democratic Republic of the Congo in Tanganyika Province. The M ...

was worked almost continuously until the late 1970s, first by Géomines and later by Congo-Etain and Zairetain. Perhaps 180,000 tonnes of

cassiterite Cassiterite is a tin oxide mineral, SnO2. It is generally opaque, but it is translucent in thin crystals. Its luster and multiple crystal faces produce a desirable gem. Cassiterite was the chief tin ore throughout ancient history and remains t ...

ore were extracted in this period. The collapse of the world tin price in the 1980s severely hit the town's economy. However, since 2017 exploration has been underway for lithium minerals and tin at the historical tin mine in the Manono - Kitotolo region. The town is served by

Manono Airport Manono Airport is an airport serving Manono, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Manono, a city in Tanganyika Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The runway is within the city. See also * * *Transport in the Democratic Republic of the Con ...

. Manono has a

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

which was built by

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

, and was severely damaged during the war.

Climate

Manono has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''Aw'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manono, Democratic Republic Of The Congo Populated places in Tanganyika Province