North Kivu in the context of "Kivu Province"

The Kivu conflict is an umbrella term for a series of protracted armed conflicts in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo which have occurred since the end of the Second Congo War. Including neighboring Ituri province, there are more than 120 different armed groups active in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Currently, some of the most active rebel groups include the Allied Democratic Forces, the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, the March 23 Movement, and many local Mai Mai militias. In addition to armed groups and the governmental FARDC troops, a number of national, regional and international forces have intervened militarily in the conflict, including the United Nations force known as MONUSCO, the militaries of Uganda and Burundi, and a force from the East African Community known as the East African Community Regional Force. The Kivu region is thus regarded as a key geopolitical arena, where local armed groups intersect with broader regional rivalries and international strategic interests. Analysts note that competition over natural resources, cross-border alliances, and external interventions have transformed the conflict from a purely domestic issue into a wider geopolitical struggle.

The conflict began in 2004 in the eastern Congo as an armed conflict between the military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the Hutu Power group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has broadly consisted of three phases, the third of which is an ongoing conflict. Prior to March 2009, the main combatant group against the FARDC was the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP). Following the cessation of hostilities between these two forces, rebel Tutsi forces, formerly under the command of Laurent Nkunda, became the dominant opposition to the government forces.

Goma is a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the capital and largest city of the North Kivu Province; it is located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu and shares borders with the Bukumu Chiefdom to the north, Rwanda to the east and the Masisi Territory to the west. The city lies in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift, and is only 13–18 km (8.1–11.2 mi) south of the active volcano Mount Nyiragongo. With an approximate area of 75.72 km (29.24 sq mi), the city had a population of 782,000 people in 2024,with an additional 500,000 displaced people.

Goma is administratively divided into two urban municipalities: Goma and Karisimbi, which are further subdivided into 18 quarters, colloquially recognized as "neighborhoods" in the English lexicon. The city is home to several notable landmarks, including Goma International Airport, the UNESCO World Heritage Site Virunga National Park, the private Christian co-educational school Adventist University of Goma, the University of Goma, and is also surrounded by the active Virunga volcanic range, which includes volcanoes Nyamulagira, Nyiragongo, Mikeno, Visoke, Gahinga, Karisimbi, and Sabinyo. Goma also hosts the annual Amani Festival, the Free University of the Great Lakes Countries, which supports local development initiatives, as well as the regional cultural center and art school, Foyer Culturel de Goma.

South Kivu (Swahili: Jimbo la Kivu Kusini; French: Sud-Kivu) is one of 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Bukavu. Located within the East African Rift's western branch Albertine Rift, it is bordered to the east by Lake Kivu, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania; to the west by Maniema Province; to the north by North Kivu Province; and the south by Tanganyika Province. The province covers an area of approximately 69,130 square kilometers and has an estimated population of 8,147,400 as of 2024.

The region has historically been inhabited by various Bantu-speaking ethnic groups, including the Bamushi, Bafuliiru, Bahavu, Banyindu, Babembe, Babuyu, Balega, Babwari, Baholoholo, Banyanga, Bavira, Bakusu, Batembo, Barongeronge, and Baswaga, as well as Pygmy communities. During the colonial period, the borders of the Congo Free State were established by the 1885 Berlin Conference, placing all of Lake Kivu and both banks of the Ruzizi River within the Free State. The region's boundaries were later subject to disputes, including the Kivu frontier incident of 1909, which was resolved in 1910 when the eastern portion of Kivu was allocated to Uganda Protectorate and German East Africa. Kivu District was formally created in 1912 and later divided into Sud-Kivu and Nord-Kivu Districts in 1951. After a series of administrative reorganizations, South Kivu became a separate province in 1988, alongside North Kivu and Maniema.

The Allied Democratic Forces (French: Forces démocratiques alliées; abbreviated ADF) is a Ugandan Islamist rebel group based in western Uganda and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Some refer to the group as IS-DRC as a chapter of IS-CAP, but this terms is broader and tends to include non-ADF rebels. It is considered a terrorist organization by the Ugandan government and the United States. The group is sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations Security Council. Originally based in western Uganda, the ADF has expanded into eastern DRC where nearly all of its fighting has occurred. Most ADF fighters are Ugandan Muslims from the Baganda and Basoga ethnic groups.

Since the late 1990s, the ADF has operated in the Congo's North Kivu province near the border with Uganda. While repeated military offensives against the ADF have severely affected it, the ADF has been able to regenerate because its recruitment and financial networks have remained intact. Some of the attacks it has been blamed for also appear to have been committed by other rebel groups as well as the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC).

The March 23 Movement (French: Mouvement du 23 mars), often abbreviated as M23 and also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army (Armée révolutionnaire du Congo), is a Congolese Rwandan-backed rebel paramilitary group. Based in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it operates mainly in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, which border Uganda and Rwanda. M23 is the principal member of the Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups in eastern DRC.

M23 was established in 2012 by former members of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a Rwandan-backed rebel group largely composed of Rwandan-Congolese fighters. These combatants had previously integrated into the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) under the terms of a 2009 peace agreement, which also called for the transformation of the CNDP into a political party, reintegration of refugees, and incorporation of CNDP personnel into government roles. However, local opposition to the CNDP's leadership, accused of past human rights violations, impeded the full implementation of the agreement. On 6 May 2012, a group of these ex-CNDP fighters mutinied, forming M23 and citing the government's failure to uphold the peace accord. The group launched strikes during its first rebellion against the Congolese government that led to the displacement of large numbers of people. On 20 November 2012, M23 took control of Goma, the capital of North Kivu with a population of a million people, but was persuaded to withdraw from the city by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) because the Congolese government had finally agreed to negotiate with the rebel group. In late 2012, Congolese troops, along with UN peacekeeping troops, retook Goma, and the M23 announced a ceasefire and said that it wanted to resume peace talks.

The National Congress for the Defence of the People (French: Congrès national pour la défense du peuple, CNDP) was a Congolese Rwandan-backed paramilitary rebel group active in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Kivu conflict. Established on 26 July 2006 by Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu Province, the CNDP emerged as the immediate successor to the Congolese Rally for Democracy–Goma (RCD-Goma), another Rwandan-sponsored rebel faction. With strong military and financial ties to Rwanda, the CNDP positioned itself as a defender of the Tutsi population and claimed to be combating the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a pretext it used to challenge President Joseph Kabila's government while engaging in the illicit extraction and commercialization of natural resources.

In 2002, Nkunda served as RCD-Goma's brigade commander in Kisangani. By early 2003, he inaugurated the political movement Synergie pour la paix et la concorde. The RCD-Goma remained active until a 2003 peace deal in South Africa led to a transitional government and the goal of unifying the country by integrating all major armed groups into a national army. However, fearing marginalization under Kabila's administration, the RCD-Goma sought to preserve its influence. Nkunda was appointed as the group's commander in North Kivu but declined to attend his swearing-in in Kinshasa, citing security concerns. Analysts suggested Rwanda positioned Nkunda as a proxy to retain its control over the eastern DRC. In December 2003, Synergie pour la paix et la concorde was formalized in Bukavu and established its operational base in Goma. Tensions escalated after the February 2004 arrest of Officer Joseph Kasongo in South Kivu for his alleged involvement in the assassination of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Clashes between the army and the RCD-Goma erupted, culminating in a ten-day siege of Bukavu, after which Nkunda's forces retreated. By December 2004, internal schisms within the RCD-Goma deteriorated when local Hutu leaders issued letters condemning the manipulation of Banyarwanda identity and pledging loyalty to the central government. This division prompted North Kivu's Governor Eugène Serufuli to shift allegiance to Kinshasa, signaling the decline of the RCD-Goma's influence. By mid-2005, Nkunda's network had grown as former RCD-Goma commanders defected to his cause. On 8 September 2005, he accused the government of ethnic cleansing in North Kivu and called for its removal by force. The same year, many ex-RCD-Goma soldiers defected to Nkunda's ranks amid the ongoing military integration process known as brassage. The government issued an arrest warrant for Nkunda, and in late 2005, the first major confrontation between defectors and national forces took place in Rutshuru Territory.

Laurent Nkunda Mihigo (born Laurent Nkundabatware; February 2, 1967) is a Congolese former military officer and warlord who operated in the North Kivu Province during the Kivu conflict.

Nkunda, who is a Congolese Tutsi, initially fought as a rebel fighter in the Rwandan Civil War alongside the forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) against the genocidal Hutu-led government in Rwanda. In 1996, he returned to the Congo and joined Laurent Kabila's AFDL forces during the First Congo War. However, he later rebelled against Kabila's government and joined the rebellion led by Rwandan-aligned rebels during the Second Congo War. Following the end of the Second Congo War, he was integrated into the Congolese Army in 2003 but would again later rebel against the government, marking the beginning of the Kivu conflict.

Rwanda-Rundi or West Highlands Kivu is a group of Bantu languages, specifically a dialect continuum, spoken in Central Africa. Two dialects, Kirundi and Kinyarwanda, have been standardized as the national languages of Burundi and Rwanda respectively. These neighbouring dialects are mutually intelligible, but other dialects which are more distant ones may not be. The other dialects are spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinyabwisha in North Kivu), Uganda (Rufumbira, spoken by the Bafumbira in Kisoro District), and Tanzania; Ha, with one million speakers, is the most widely spoken.

The Bukumu Chiefdom (French: Chefferie de Bukumu) is a chiefdom located in the Nyiragongo Territory of the North Kivu Province in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is bounded to the north by Bwisha Chiefdom in Rutshuru Territory, to the south by Goma, to the east by Rwanda, and to the west by Masisi Territory. As the sole chiefdom in Nyiragongo Territory, Bukumu Chiefdom spans 333 km, with more than half of its land (170 km) incorporated into Virunga National Park, while the remaining 163 km is inhabited by a population estimated at 338,966 as of the 2022 census.

Bukumu Chiefdom's political and economic landscape is shaped by its proximity to the Rwandan border, rapid urbanization, and complex identity and governance dynamics. The chiefdom is administratively structured into seven groupements, further subdivided into 58 villages. However, since 2006, the former groupements of Kibumba and Buhumba have been reclassified as rural communes by presidential decree, placing them outside the authority of customary rule. The Bakumu people traditionally govern the chiefdom, but its population also includes Shi, Nande, Hunde, Hutu, Tutsi, and other ethnic groups.