Banyamulenge The Banyamulenge is a term historically describing the ethnic Tutsi concentrated on the High Plateau of South Kivu , in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , close to the Burundi - Congo - Rwanda border . 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 . Overview . The Banyamulenge form a minority of the South Kivu population . They are also called Tutsi congolese . Rival ethnic groups in the late 1990s claimed the Banyamulenge numbered no more than 35 , 000 , while the Banyamulenge sympathizers claim up to ten times that number . The population of Banyamulenge in the early 21st century is estimated at between 50 , 000 and 70 , 000 by René Lemarchand or by Gérard Prunier at around 60 , 000 – 80 , 000 , a figure about 3 – 4 percent of the total provincial population . Lemarchand notes that the group represents " a rather unique case of ethnogenesis . " The Banyamulenge of South Kivu are culturally and socially distinct from the Tutsis of North Kivu and the Tutsis who fled to South Kivu in the 1959 – 1962 Rwandan revolution . Most Banyamulenge speak Kinyarwanda , and those that do speak it with a dialect different from other Tutsi groups . Origins and early political status . Compared to the history of the Banyamasisi , composed of Hutu and Tutsis Rwandophone in North Kivu , the history of Banyamulenge is relatively straightforward . The first arrival of Banyarwanda from Rwanda may have occurred in the seventeenth century . However , the first significant recorded influx of Banyarwanda into South Kivu is dated to the 1880s . Two reasons are given . The first is that the migrants were composed of Tutsi trying to avoid the increasingly high taxes imposed by " Mwami " Rwabugiri of the Kingdom of Rwanda . The second is that the group was fleeing the violent war of succession that erupted after the death of Rwabugiri in 1895 . This group was mostly Tutsi and their Hutu " abagaragu " ( clients ) had been " icyihuture " ( turned Tutsi ) , which negated interethnic tension . They settled above the Ruzizi Plain on the Itombwe Plateau . The plateau , which reached an altitude of 3000 meters , could not support large - scale agriculture , but allowed cattle grazing . Banyarwanda migrants continued to arrive , particularly as labour migrants during the colonial period . The first of these was a recruitment by the Union Minière du Haut Katanga from 1925 to 1929 of more than 7000 workers . From the 1930s , Banyarwanda immigrants continued coming in search of work , with a major influx of Tutsi refugees in 1959 – 1960 following the " Social Revolution " led by Hutu Grégoire Kayibanda . While the early migrants were primarily pastoralists in the high plains , colonial labour migrants moved to urban areas , while refugees found themselves in refugee camp s . In 1924 , the pastoralists received permission from colonial authorities to occupy a high plateau father south . The groups received further influxes during the anti - Tutsi persecutions in 1959 , 1964 and 1973 . Many Banyamulenge initially joined the Simba Rebellion of 1964 – 5 , but switched sides when rebels , fleeing Jean Schramme ' s mercenaries and government troops , came onto the plateau and began killing the Banyarwanda ' s cattle for food . The Tutsi then rose up , accepting weapons from the pro - Mobutu Sese Seko forces and assisting in the defeat of the remaining rebels . Because many of the rebels so killed were from the neighbouring Bembe people , this incident created a lasting source of intragroup tension . The government rewarded the Banyamulenge ' s efforts on its behalf by rewarding individuals with high positions in the capital Bukavu , while their children were increasingly sent to missionary schools . Starting at this time , Lemarchand asserts , " From a rural , isolated , backward community , the Banyamulenge would soon become increasingly aware of themselves as a political force . " After the war , the group took advantage of a favourable political environment to expand . Some went south towards Moba port and Kalemi , while others moved onto the Ruzizi plain , where a few became chiefs among the Barundi through gifts of cattle . Still others went to work in the Bukavu , the provincial capital , or Uvira , a town experiencing a gold rush economic boom . These urban dwellers were able to make a fair living selling meat and milk from their herds to the gold diggers , though the group lacked the political connections to Kinshasa and the large educated class that the North Kivu Banyarwanda possessed . Unlike the Barundi , the Banyarwanda of South Kivu did not have their own Native Authority and they were thus reliant upon the local chiefs of the area that they had settled . The pastoralists were located within three " territoires " : Mwenga , inhabited by the Lega people ; Fizi of the Bembe people ; and Uvira , inhabited by the Vira people , Bafuliro and Barundi . The term " Banyamulenge " translates literally as " people of Mulenge " , a " groupement " on the Itombwe plateau . The name " Banyamulenge " was chosen in the early 1970s to avoid being called " Banyarwanda " and seen as foreigners . Ethnic tensions against Tutsi rose following the end of the colonial period , as well as the 1972 mass killing of Hutu in Burundi . In response the Tutsi appear to have attempted to distance themselves from their ethnicity as Rwandans and lay claim to a territorial identity as residents of Mulenge . As they moved , they continued this practice , so that some Tutsi Banyarwanda in South Kivu call themselves the Banya - tulambo and Banya - minembwe , after the places they were located . Political tensions ( 1971 – 1992 ) . These practices were increasingly more controversial after 1971 . The 1971 Citizenship Decree by President Mobutu Sese Seko granted citizenship to Banyarwanda who had arrived as refugees from 1959 to 1963 . However , many saw this as an alarming sign of the growing influence of Banyarwanda in the administration , specifically Chief of Staff Barthélémy Bisengimana . In 1976 , the word " Banyamulenge " first came into wide usage after Gisaro Muhazo , a South Kivutian minister of parliament , began an initiative to regroup the Banyamulenge of Mwenga , Fizi and Uvira into a single administrative entity . Muhazo ' s attempt failed , but the term he introduced remained and , over decades , became a catchall label for Kivutian Tutsis . In reaction to the apparently growing influence of the Banyamulenge , the majority ethnicities , particularly the Nande and Hunde of North Kivu , focused on dominating the 1977 legislative elections . Once accomplished , they passed the 1981 Citizenship Bill , stating that only people who could prove descent from someone resident in Congo in 1885 would qualify for citizenship . From the perspective of the " indigenous " ethnicities , such as the Bafuliro , the name " Banyamulenge " was thus a claim to indigeneity in Mulenge , of which the Bafuliro themselves claimed " ownership " . However , the bill proved difficult to implement by the time of the 1985 provincial assembly elections , so the " indigenous " Kivutian majority came up with an " ad hoc " measure : Banyarwanda were allowed vote in elections but not run for political office . This appeared to aggravate the situation as those Banyarwanda who actually qualified as citizens under the 1981 law found their political rights curtailed . The response of some Banyarwanda , particularly Tutsi , was to smash ballot boxes in protest . Others formed Umoja , an organisation of all Congolese Banyarwanda . However , the increasingly tensions within the Banyarwanda led to the division of the organisation into two Tutsi and Hutu groups in 1988 . The 1991 Sovereign National Conference ( CNS ) was a sign of the increasing coherence of the anti - Mobutu forces and came as the Congolese Banyarwanda were in a state of heightened tension . Following the beginning of the Rwandan Civil War in 1990 , many young Tutsi men in Kivu decided to cross the border to join the Tutsi - dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front ( RPF ) in its fight against the Hutu - dominated Rwandan government . In response , the Mobutu government implemented Mission d ' Identification de Zaïrois au Kivu to identify non - Zairean Banyarwanda , using the end of the Berlin Conference as the division point . Many Banyarwanda whose families had come as colonial labourers were classified as aliens , resulting in yet more youth joining the RPF . The overall effect of the CNS was to strengthen the tendency of " indigenous " Congolese to differentiate between Tutsi from Hutu , and lump together all Tutsi Banyarwanda as " Banyamulenge " . It also underlined the fragility of their political position to the Banyamulenge . Within the Banyarwanda in the Kivus , the Hutu began defining themselves as " indigenous " in comparison to the Tutsis , who were increasingly seen as owing their allegiance to the foreign groups . Conflict ( 1993 – 1998 ) . In 1993 , the issue of land and indigenous claims in the Kivus erupted into bloody conflict . Hutu , and some Tutsi , landlords began buying the lands of poor Hutu and Bahunde of the Wanyanga chiefdom in Masisi , North Kivu . After being displaced , one thousand people went to Walikale , demanding the right to elect their own ethnic leaders . The Banyanga , insisting that only " indigenous people " could claim this customary right , began fighting with the Hutu . The one thousand returned to Masisi , where the Hutu landlords , and Banyarwanda in general , supported the claim of Banyarwanda to " indigenous " rights . The government sent in the Division Spéciale Présidentielle ( DSP ) and Guard Civile to restore order . Ill - supplied , the security forces were forced to live off the local population : the DSP off the rich Hutu and the Guard Civile off the Bahunde and ordinary Hutu . The DSP appeared to be protecting the rights of the " non - indigenous " ( primarily Hutu ) against the " indigenous " ( primarily Bahunde ) , sparking outrage and increasing the scope of the conflict . One estimate is that between 10 , 000 and 20 , 000 people were killed ; another 200 , 000 people were forced to flee their homes . In late 1993 , about 50 , 000 Burundian refugees from the Burundi Civil War began streaming into primarily South Kivu . They were followed the next year by almost one million mostly Hutu refugees from the Rwandan Genocide , creating the Great Lakes refugee crisis . The Hutu government responsible for the genocide came with the refugees ; they turned the camps into armed bases from which they could launch attacks against the newly victorious RPF government in Rwanda . The influx of refugees dramatically changed the situation of the Banyamulenge . The Congolese Tutsi in North Kivu were threatened by the new armed Hutu camps , while the newly established Tutsi government in Rwanda gave them a safe place to go . Their peril was underlined by a commission led by Mambweni Vangu , who declared that all Banyarwanda were refugees and must return to Rwanda . In April 1995 , Anzuluni Mbembe , the co - speaker of the Parliament of Congo , signed a resolution stating that all Banyamulenge were recent refugees ( regardless of how long they had lived in the Congo ) and providing a list of Banyamulenge who would be expelled from the country . Between March and May 1996 , the remaining Tutsi in Masisi and Rutshuru were identified and expelled into refugee camps in Gisenyi . The Bahunde , forced out by the Hutu , also took refuge there . The situation in South Kivu took longer to develop . Once the 1994 refugees arrived , local authorities began appropriating Banyamulenge - owned property in the valley with the support of Mbembe . Threatened by both the armed Hutus to the north and a Congolese army appropriating property and land , the Banyamulenge of South Kivu sought cross - border training and supply of arms from the RPF . As threats proliferated , each Native Authority formed its own militia . Finally , in November 1996 , the RPF - backed Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo ( AFDL ) , which the Banyamulenge militias joined , crossed the border and dismantled the camps , before continuing on to Kinshasa and overthrowing Mobutu . The ranks of the AFDL were composed in large part by Banyamulenge , who filled most of the administrative positions in South Kivu after the fall of Bukavu . As documented in the DRC Mapping Exercise Report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , the success of the invasion led to revenge killings by the Tutsi Banyarwanda against their opponents . Perhaps six thousand Hutu were purged in the week following the AFDL capture of the town . It was worse in South Kivu , as Banyamulenge settled local scores and RPF soldiers appeared to conflate the " génocidaires " with the Hutu with the " indigenous " Congolese . One intellectual in Bukavu who was otherwise sympathetic to the Banyamulenge claim to citizenship stated : The Banyamulenge conquered their rights by arms but the rift between them and the local population has grown . The attitude of the Tutsi soldiers — during and after the war has made them more detested by the population due to the killings , torture . For example , they will go into the village , raid all the cattle , tell the population — since when have you learned to keep cattle ; we are cattle ; we know cattle . In Bukavu , they went into and stole from houses . Not so much in Goma . The result is the population is increasingly getting concerned over the question of the Tutsi presence . Second Congo War ( 1998 – 2003 ) . The situation became more polarised with the beginning of the Second Congo War in 1998 . Those who had carried out the massacres of Hutu became part of the ruling military forces in the Kivus . Meanwhile , the Congolese government of Laurent Kabila urged the " indigenous " population to fight not only the invading RPF , but the rebelling Banyamulenge and Tutsi civilians . Matching actions to words , Kabila armed " indigenous " Mai - Mai and Congolese Hutu in response to the RPF ' s supplying arms to the Banyamulenge . The two Mai - Mai groups most active against the Banyamulenge are the Babembe and Barega militias . The various Banyamulenge militias and the Rwandan government forces are separate . In early 2002 , extensive fighting took place on the high plateau of South Kivu after Commandant Patrick Masunzu , an ethnic Munyamulenge in the Rwandan - backed Rally for Congolese Democracy - Goma ( RCD - Goma ) rebel movement , gathered Banyamulenge support in an uprising against the RCD - Goma leadership . By 2000 , the Banyamulenge were hemmed into the high plateau by Congolese Mai - Mai , the Burundian Forces for the Defense of Democracy , and the Rwandan Hutu Armée de Libération du Rwanda ( ALiR ) . They were unable to carry out basic economic activities without the security provided through the RCD - Goma . Numerous families fled to the relative safety of the Burundian capital of Bujumbura . Nevertheless , Banyamulenge make up much of the RCD military wing , the Armée Nationale Congolaise ( ANC ) , and control the towns of Fizi , Uvira and Minembwe . In August 2004 , 166 Banyamulenge refugees were massacred at a refugee camp in Gatumba , Burundi by a force composed mostly of National Liberation Front rebels . Vice - President Azarias Ruberwa , a Munyamulenge , suspended his participation in the transitional government for one week in protest , before being persuaded to return to Kinshasa by South African pressure .