Kindu

Kindu is a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the capital of Maniema province. It has a population of about 200,000 and is situated on the Lualaba River at an altitude of about 500 metres, and is about 400 km west of Bukavu.

Kindu is linked by rail to the mining areas of Kalemie, Kamina and Kananga to the south. It also has an airport with a 2,200 metre runway and has historically been an important port along the Congo River system.

History

The town was an important centre for the ivory, gold and the slave trade during the nineteenth century. Arab-Swahili slave traders were based here from about 1860 and sent caravans overland to Zanzibar.

Henry Morton Stanley came upon "this remarkable town" on 5 Dec. 1876, describing it as "remarkably long" with a "broad street, thirty feet wide, and two miles in length" and "behind the village were the banana and the palm groves."

In November 1961, during the Congo Crisis, the Kindu atrocity took place in Kindu. During the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko Kindu was also the former capital of Nord-Kivu subregion of Kivu region.