1.2 Brief presentation of South Kivu province
1.1.1 Geographical situation
South Kivu is one of the eleven DRC's provinces; it is located
in the eastern part of the DRC. In 1986, During Mobutu's era, Kivu was the
province and it comprised 3 sub regions (in French, Sous Régions) that
were North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema. But later, these sub regions became
considered as full provinces. The capital city of South Kivu is Bukavu where
the local government that manages the province is based. South Kivu is one of
the richest provinces of the country, its land is very rich for cultivation and
mostly, it engorges a lot of minerals. The latter are very envied by
neighbouring countries that have always invaded this part of the DRC under the
pretext that they are hunting down the Interahamwe, the Rwandan militia who
committed the 1994 genocide.
As for its size, South Kivu has a total area of 65 070 Km2 (25
120 sq mi). Its population,
based on 2010 estimates, is 4 614 768. The
province borders Kivu Lake to the North East
and Tanganyika Lake to the South East; North Kivu to the
North, Maniema to the West and Katanga to the South. It shares its borders with
the countries of Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania in the East. It is composed of
seven territories that are Fizi, Kabare, Kalehe, Mwenga, Shabunda, Uvira and
Walungu.
Map 1: Map of South Kivu province (Source: The world facts book,
2007)
1.1.2 Historical situation
The DRC got its independence from Belgium in 1960. After
independence, the country experienced vast political and social troubles under
President Joseph Kasa Vubu. This situation pushed the young Colonel Joseph
Désiré Mobutu to overthrow him in November 1965. As Mobutu became
president, he decided to make different changes in the country and one of them
was to change names inherited from the colonizer. In this context, the Country
became Zaire and the names of the provinces changed as well. Thus, South Kivu
originates from Kivu, one of the 9 provinces that the country was composed of.
The Capital city Costermasville changed into Bukavu. In 1986, Mobutu decided to
make more provinces and so they became 11, of which there is South Kivu.
The history of this province is particular to the DRC. Since
Mobutu took power, the country was attacked three times and all the combats
were launched from South Kivu. It is in this context that in 1964, the first
invasion of the country was lead by a former minister of education, Pierre
Mulele. Three years later, that is 1967, another group of rebels among whom was
Laurent Désiré Kabila had hired the French mercenary, Jean
Schramme to combat Mobutu's administration but they were defeated. Mobutu
enjoyed presidency for 32 years and in May 1996, Laurent Désiré
Kabila toppled him and his regime by a rebellion backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
Kabila came to power but had a lot of contentions with his former allies from
Rwanda and Uganda. Finally, in 1991, he was assassinated in his office by his
own body guard. This situation lead his son Joseph Kabila to become president
but his regime also knew a lot of troubles and different rebellions were
created and the turning point again was South Kivu.
Regrettably these different wars, mostly lead by men
combatants and based in mineral areas, were the origins of violence and rape of
women and girls in South Kivu. Kabila's death and the takeover by his son did
not result in the regulation of GBV. On the contrary, men's violence in the
province worsened. Accordingly, raped women and girls contaminated HIV/AIDS,
others died of vaginal wounds and many more were repudiated by their husbands
as they were considered as social shame and cast in South Kivu (Amnesty
International, 2007).
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