Kivu

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Map of the Kivu provinces

Kivu is a region named after Lake Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , which includes the two provinces of North Kivu and Sud-Kivu as well as Maniema in a broader sense .

The inhabitants of the region are called Kivutier (French Kivutien ).

history

The name Kivu goes back at least to 1914, when the Belgian colonial government at the time divided the Congo into 22 districts. From 1935 the area was administered as the province of Costermansville (named after its capital, Costermansville, today's Bukavu ) with the districts of North Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Maniema. In 1947 the province was renamed Kivu. In 1988 it was divided into what are now the three provinces.

In the first and second Congo Wars from 1996 to 2003 and then in the Kivu War , the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie rebels, the May-May militias and forces from the neighboring states of Rwanda and Uganda fought in the Kivu region .