Kanyabayonga (also Kanya Bayonga, Kanyabayungu) is a town straddling the

Lubero Lubero is a town in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the administrative center of the Lubero Territory. Following the surrender of the Mai-Mai fighters in 2021, construction of a new market began in 2022, in ...

and

Rutshuru Rutshuru is a town located in the North Kivu province of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and is headquarters of an administrative district, the Rutshuru Territory. The town lies in the western branch of the Albertine Rift between L ...

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

North Kivu North Kivu () is a Provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, province bordering Lake Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital city is Goma. Spanning approximately 59,483 square kilometers with a population esti ...

province in eastern

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

(DRC). Administratively, the part which is in Lubero is the commune of Kanyabayonga and, the part in Rutshuru belongs to the Kanyabayonga ''groupement'' (

grouping Grouping generally refers to the creation of one or more groups, or to the groups themselves. More specifically, grouping may refer to: * Shot grouping in shooting sports and other uses of firearms * the use of symbols of grouping in mathemati ...

) which extends well south of the town and is within the Bwito chiefdom. The region as a whole has seen much armed conflict since 1993.

Location

Kanyabayonga lies in mountainous terrain to the west of

Lake Edward Lake Edward (locally Rwitanzigye or Rweru) is one of the smaller African Great Lakes. It is located in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift, on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, ...

, in the east of the country. It is on the N2 route from

Goma Goma is a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the North Kivu, North Kivu Province; it is located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu and shares borders with the Bukumu Chiefdo ...

Butembo Butembo is a city in North Kivu, in the north eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on the Rwenzori graben and west of Virunga National Park. The city is an important commercial centre with large markets, a cathedral, multiple large hospitals, a ...

. As of 2004 the population was about 30,000.

Civil wars

In 1993 the government's

Forces Armées Zaïroises In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the magnitude and direction ...

(FAZ) launched "Operation Mbata", a military offensive that resulted in the burning of houses and the central hospital in Kanyabayonga. During the

Rwandan Civil War The Rwandan Civil War was a large-scale civil war in Rwanda which was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces, representing the country's government, and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from 1October 1990 to 18 July 1994. The war arose ...

thousands of

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

n refugees arrived in the region in 1994, fleeing from advancing troops of the

Rwandan Patriotic Front The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF–Inkotanyi; , FPR) is the ruling political party in Rwanda. The RPF was founded in December 1987 by Rwandan Tutsi in exile in Uganda because of the ethnic violence that had occurred during the Rwandan Hutu Revo ...

. The refugees included

Rwandan Armed Forces The Rwandan Defence Force (RDF, , , ) is the military of Rwanda. Prior to 1994, Rwanda's military was officially known as the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), but following the Rwandan Civil War and the Rwandan genocide, the Rwandan Patriotic Front ( ...

soldiers and

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great L ...

Interahamwe The Interahamwe ( or ) is a Hutu paramilitary organization active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The Interahamwe was formed around 1990, as the youth wing of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (M ...

militias, some of which still occasionally make incursions into Kanyabayonga and surrounding communities, looting, killing and raping. In the 1996 war led by the

Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (), also known by the French acronym AFDL, was a coalition of Rwandan, Ugandan, Burundian, and Congolese dissidents, disgruntled minority groups, and nations that toppled Mobut ...

(AFDL) of

Laurent-Désiré Kabila Laurent-Désiré Kabila (; 27 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) usually known as Laurent Kabila or Kabila the Father (American English, US: ), was a Congolese rebel and politician who served as the third president of the Democratic Republic of t ...

, AFDL troops and their allies from

and

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

committed many crimes and abuses of human rights in Kanyabayonga. In the

Second Congo War The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War or the Great War of Africa, was a major conflict that began on 2 August 1998, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just over a year after the First Congo War. The war initially erupted ...

initiated by the

Rally for Congolese Democracy The Congolese Rally for Democracy (; 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 Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was suppo ...

(RCD) in August 1998, Kanyabayonga suffered further violence and destruction, particularly after the RCD split into two rival groups, the RCD-Goma allied with Rwanda and the RCD-K/ML allied with Uganda. The line between the territories of the two rebel groups was at Rwindi, just south of Kanyabayonga, with Kanyabayonga located in the part controlled by the RCD-K/ML . In April 2003, the RCD-Goma launched a military offensive against the RCD-K/ML positions, occupying more than two thirds of the

Lubero Territory Lubero Territory is a territory in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Internally displaced persons On 10 June, 2014, the administrator of Lubero Territory, Joy Bokele, requested assistance for six hundred displaced households who sou ...

. The advance was halted after signature of an agreement in

Bujumbura Bujumbura (; ), formerly Usumbura, is the economic capital, largest city and main port of Burundi. It ships most of the country's chief export, coffee, as well as cotton and tin ore. Bujumbura was formerly the country's political capital. In la ...

on 19 June 2003 under which the RCD-Goma had to withdraw to their former territory. However Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC) troops, the armed forces of the RCD-Goma, continued to occupy Kanyabayonga along with local mostly Hutu militias created and directed by the North Kivu Governor Eugene Serufuli. On 10 and 11 October 2004, hundreds of mostly young students from primary and secondary schools took to the streets of the city of Kanyabayonga to protest against the increase in crimes against civilians by these forces. ANC troops violently broke up the demonstration and instituted a reign of terror.

Ongoing violence

In October and November 2008 there was widespread fighting in North Kivu between the Congolese-Tutsi rebel

Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple The National Congress for the Defence of the People (, CNDP) was a Congolese Rwandan-backed paramilitary rebel group active in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Kivu conflict. Established on 26 July 2006 by Laurent Nkunda i ...

(CNDP) and the

Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Armed (May, 1941–1964) was an American Thoroughbred gelding race horse who was the American Horse of the Year in 1947 and Champion Older Male Horse in both 1946 and 1947. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame ...

(FARDC), who were supported by local Mayi Mayi militias and the Rwandan-Hutu

Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (, FDLR; , IDKR) is an armed rebel group active in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. As an ethnic Hutu group opposed to the ethnic Tutsi influence, the FDLR is one of the last fact ...

(FDLR) militia. The CNDP launched attacks south towards Goma and north towards Rutshuru. The FARDC troops retreated south through Goma towards South Kivu and north through Kanyabayonga into

. At least five FARDC brigades poured into Lubero Territory. Many civilians fled into the bush to avoid the troops. During the withdrawal through Kanyabayonga the soldiers shot several civilians, raped at least fifty women and looted houses for food, basic household and agricultural items and mobile telephones. As of September 2009, many of there soldiers remained in the area. In November 2010 Christian Bakulene, Pastor of the Parish of Saint Jean-Baptiste in Kanyabayonga, was murdered by two armed men in military uniform. The local press speculated that the killing was meant to intimidate other priests working in the area. In May 2011 both the northern and southern areas of the densely populated Lubero territory were under control of the FDLR and Mayi-Mayi militia. The town was undefended and was subject to persistent attacks and looting by these forces. On 9–10 June 2011, FDLR rebels burned over 100 houses in Kanyabayonga. Although there were UN and Congolese army troops in the area, they did not protect the civilians.

References

{{reflist , refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.inshuti.org/kanyaba2.htm , title=Kanyabayonga saccagée par le RCD-Goma et une milice obéissant au gouverneur Serufuli. , language=French , date=November 2004 , publisher=CEJA , accessdate=2011-10-28 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090429171525/http://www.inshuti.org/kanyaba2.htm , archive-date=29 April 2009 , url-status=dead {{cite web , url=http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/Goma_KanyabayongaRapport_Septembre_2009.pdf , title=CONSOLIDATED INVESTIGATION REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS JOINT HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE (UNJHRO) FOLLOWING WIDESPREAD LOOTING AND GRAVE VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS BY THE CONGOLESE NATIONAL ARMED FORCES IN GOMA AND KANYABAYONGA IN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 2008 , publisher=United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo , date=7 September 2009 , accessdate=2011-10-28 Populated places in North Kivu Communes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo