Kivu was the name for a large "region" in 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 ...

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 ...

that bordered Lake Kivu. It included three "Sub-Regions" ("Sous-Régions" in French): Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and

Maniema Maniema is one of 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Kindu. Toponymy Henry Morton Stanley explored the area, calling it Manyema.Stanley, H.M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: G. Newnes, Vol. One ...

, 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 Goma is the capital of North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, next to the Rwandan city of Gisenyi. The lake and the two cities are in the Albertine Rift, the w ...

, 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 which contain the vast majority of the lake area's population (the contiguous towns of

in the

Democratic Republic of 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 ...

and

Gisenyi Gisenyi, historically rendered as Kisenyi, is a city in Rubavu district in Rwanda's Western Province. Gisenyi is contiguous with Goma, the city across the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Overview The city features a resort o ...

in Rwanda, 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 Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is t ...

in its depths, and there is some concern that tectonic activity (

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...

ing) and/or

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

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