South Kivu

South Kivu (French: Sud-Kivu) is a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Bukavu.

History

South Kivu Province was created in 1969, when the existing Kivu Province was divided into two parts.

In June 2014, around 35 people were killed in an attack in the South Kivu village of Mutarule. The attack was apparently part of dispute over cattle.

Geography

South Kivu borders the provinces of North Kivu to the north, Maniema to the west, and Katanga to the south. To the east it borders the countries of Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania.

Administrative organization

Administratively, the province of Sud-Kivu is divided into eight territories:

Cities

In the legal view, this province has three major cities of importance: Baraka (Fizi Territory), Bukavu (Provincial Capital) and Uvira (Uvira Territory). The northern city of Minova grew exponentially from 1994 through 2012 with a steady influx of refugees as a result of the disruption of the Rwandan Genocide and the First and Second Congo wars, and continued fighting in the area.

Kivu

Kivu was the name for a large "Region" in the Democratic Republic of Congo under the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko that bordered Lake Kivu. It included three "Sub-Regions" ("Sous-Regions" in French): Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Maniema, 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, Uvira and Kindu.

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 Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo and Gisenyi, 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 altitude (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 Valley.