South Kivu

Sud-Kivu (Kivu-Sud, South Kivu) is a province of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Its provincial capital is Bukavu.

Célestin Cibalonza Byaterana has been Governor of the province and Léon Mumate Nyamatomwa vice-governor since 24 January 2007.

Geography

It borders the provinces of Nord-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.

In formal DRC categorisation, the Province has one city, Bukavu, but other localities and territories include Baraka, Fizi, Kabare, Katana, Kaziba, Lemera, Mwenga, Nundu, Nyangezi, Shabunda, Uvira and Walungu.

War and Human rights situation

The Banyamulenge, the term historically describing the ethnic Tutsi Rwandans (Banyarwanda) concentrated on the Itombwe Plateau of the province, have been the focus of much controversy. The ambiguous political and social position of the Banyamulenge has been a point of contention in the province, leading to the Banyamulenge playing a key role in the run-up to the First Congo War in 1996-7 and Second Congo War of 1998-2003.

Sud-Kivu, along with Nord-Kivu, has been the center of the conflict resulting from the Second Congo War. The UN estimates that in 2005, approximately 45,000 women were raped in South Kivu. It forms the new Congolese military (FARDC's) 10th Military Region, whose undisciplined former factional fighters are responsible for many continuing human rights abuses, due to a continuing culture of impunity for military personnel, bad conditions, lack of pay, and lack of training.

In July 2007, United Nations human rights expert Yakin Erturk called the situation in South Kivu the worst she has ever seen in four years as the global body's special investigator for violence against women. Sexual violence throughout Congo is "rampant," she said, blaming rebel groups, the armed forces and national police. Her statement included that "Frequently women are shot or stabbed in their genital organs, after they are raped. Women, who survived months of enslavement, told me that their tormentors had forced them to eat excrement or the human flesh of murdered relatives."

Further reading

• "Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War." By Jeffrey Gettleman. October 7, 2007. New York Times
• Retracing Che Guevara's Congo Footsteps by BBC News, November 25, 2004