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The Ruzizi Plain (French language: Plaine de la Ruzizi, Swahili: Bonde la Ruzizi) is a valley situated between the Mitumba mountain chain and the Ruzizi River. It serves as a natural border, separating the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Burundi and Rwanda on the other side. The Ruzizi Plain is an integral part of the larger Albertine Rift, which stretches across several African countries. It is traversed by the Ruzizi River, which flows from Lake Kivu through the plain and into Lake Tanganyika. It covers an area of 175,000 hectares divided between Burundi, Rwanda and the DRC. In Burundi, the plain extends to the northern sector of Imbo. It is bounded by parallels 2°36′ and 3°26′ Latitude and by meridians 29°00′ and 29°26 Longitude—an area of 1025 km2. The Congolese side is bounded to the north by the plain of Bugarama (Rwanda), to the east by the Imbo plain (Burundi), to the West by the chain of Mitumba and to the South by Lake Tanganyika. The region covers thus about 80,000 hectares with 80 kilometers in length.
The Ruzizi Plain, known for its biodiversity, which hosts a wide range of Flora and Fauna, is home to important Protected area such as the Kahuzi-Biega National Park and the Rugege Forest Reserve, and is inhabited by a diverse composition of ethnic groups, including the Vira people, Furiiru people, Shi language, Lega people, Bembe people, Nyindu people, Havu language, (from South Kivu) and Hutu, Tutsi and Twa from neighboring Burundi and Rwanda. The region is also a major Agriculture center, with crops such as coffee, maize, and being grown in the area. However, the Ruzizi Plain has also been plagued by conflicts and is often considered the periphery of a vast area of insecurity whose major criminogenic centers are located in the middle and high plateaux of the Uvira Territory and in the Fizi Territory, with the mountain slopes of the Hauts and Moyens Plateaux occupied by regional and foreign armed groups.
Following the establishment of Bavira, the Bahamba clan from the Furiiru people, along with other clans, arrived. Alfred Moeller de Laddersous, a Belgian colonial administrator and governor of Orientale Province who extensively explored the eastern part of the Belgian Congo and fluent in multiple Bantu languages, estimates that the Bahamba ( Wahamba) changed their eponym from Wahamba to Bafuliiru. Consequently, Bafuliiru met Bavira at the Kiliba River in combat, after which the Bafuliiru were established north of the Bavira and somewhat in Bavira country itself. They had their own paramount who did not depend on the Bavira paramount.
During the colonial period, Belgian colonial authorities encouraged migration of Banyarwanda into parts of Eastern Congo from the recently acquired mandate of Ruanda-Urundi through the Mission d'Immigration des Banyaruanda (; MIB)". Rwanda had a high population density and suffered a number of major famines throughout the interwar years. As well as mitigating this situation, white farmers hoped to use Banyarwanda as labour in regions of Eastern Congo which were sparsely populated. The "transplanted people" were established in three main sites in Eastern Congo, namely Masisi and the Itombwe plateau in Kivu as well as the Vyura Mountains in eastern Katanga Province.
Another inflow of Banyarwanda immigrants migrated to the eastern part of the Belgian Congo at the end of the 1950s and 1960s, during the Rwandan Revolution, which abolished the monarchy and established a majority Hutu-run government. As a result, thousands of Tutsis who were members of the repressive regime, including their Umwami (King), fled to neighboring countries of Uganda, Congo, and Tanzania. While the of Itombwe (the old ones, who came in small numbers before colonization, and the transplanted ones) distinguished themselves, from the 1970s onwards, from those coming forthwith from Rwanda under the pseudonym "Banyamulenge" (literally 'those who live in Mulenge', the name of the peaks of Mulenge, where the Mwami of the Fuliiru had settled their predecessors), those of Katanga were called "BanyaVyura", also named after the heights on which the Belgians and the customary chiefs of Moba had allowed them to settle. (2004). 9782296359468, Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 9782296359468
In 1960, the Belgo-Congolese Round Table recognized that all members of these populations of Rwandan origin had the opportunity to renounce their Rwandan citizenship and become Congolese citizens. (2010). 9780870033384, Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 9780870033384
Inter-ethnic groups and raised suspicions against groups whose Congolese nationality was deemed questionable. The Burundian and Rwandan communities that were not invited to the Conference were also excluded from the census of nationals ahead of the elections. Faced with unemployment and discrimination, many young people from Rwandan communities left Uganda in 1990 to join the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) movement. Their departure reinforced the perception that they were outsiders. The situation seriously deteriorated in 1994 following the Rwandan genocide when the entry of the RPF into Rwanda led to an exodus of Interahamwe (genocidaires) and nearly two million Rwandan Hutu refugees to the DRC. Some communities, accused of having collaborated with the Tutsi, were targeted by the Hutu. Conversely, the Congolese Hutu, assimilated to those responsible for the genocide, suffered reprisals from the Tutsi. In 1995, the Transitional Parliament then adopted a resolution demanding the expulsion of all Rwandan and Burundian refugees and immigrants. During the First Congo War, after Mobutu provided refuge for Hutu refugees and Interahamwe, the Rwanda and Uganda armies invaded Zaire in 1996. The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL), led by Laurent Désiré Kabila and supported by the Rwandans and the Ugandans, brutally dismantled the refugee camps and ousted Mobutu from power. At that time, the Banyamulenge occupied positions of authority in the administrative province of South Kivu and the territory of Uvira, causing considerable discontent among other communities, including Bwegera, Luberizi, Luvungi, Katala, Rubenga, Lubarika, Kakumbukumbu, Mutarule, Kagunga, Kiliba, Ndunda, Biriba, Sange, Rwenena, Kahororo, Kamanyola, Lemera, Makobola, Kasika, Kilungutwe, Kilungutwe River, Katogota, and in other areas of South Kivu and North Kivu.
During the Second Congo War, the alliance with Rwanda and Uganda ended in 1998 when Laurent Désiré Kabila attempted to gain independence from his associates and excluded Tutsis from his government. As Rwanda and Uganda armies invaded the DRC for the second time, the Congolese Tutsi community (Banyamulenge, Barundi and Banyarwanda) allied with the rebellion of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD), which controlled eastern DRC with the aim of obtaining citizenship and the right to political representation. Many armed groups, Mai-Mai, which enjoyed broad support from the communities’ “natives” and the government of Kinshasa, organized themselves as the opponents of the RCD. The civilian population has been directly targeted by acts of violence, resulting in heightened feelings of hatred and insecurity.
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