Banyamulenge

Banyamulenge is a community from the Democratic Republic of the Congo's South Kivu province. The Banyamulenge are culturally and socially distinct from the Tutsi of North Kivu, with most speaking Kinyamulenge, a mix of Kinyarwanda (official language of Rwanda), Kirundi (spoken primarily in Burundi),^[1] Ha language (spoken by Ha people, one of the largest ethnic groups in ethnically diverse Tanzania), and Swahili. Banyamulenge are often discriminated against in the DRC due to their Tutsi phenotype, similar to that of people living in the Horn of Africa, their insubordination towards colonial rule, their role in Mobutu's war against and victory over the Simba Rebellion, which was supported by the majority of other tribes in South Kivu, their role during the First Congo War and subsequent regional conflicts (Rally for Congolese Democracy–Goma, Movement for the Liberation of the Congo, National Congress for the Defence of the People, and more importantly for the fact that two of the most influential presidents of their country declared them as enemy of the State both in 1996 (Mobutu Sese Seko) and 1998 (Laurent-Désiré Kabila).

The contentious political and social position of the Banyamulenge has been a point of controversy in the country, having played a key role in tensions against the Simba Rebellion of 1963–1965, First Congo War of 1996–1997, Second Congo War of 1998–2003, and Joseph Kabila's regime of 2001–2019. The wars in the DRC have affected more than 10 million lives, with casualties continuing in Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, and Tanganyika provinces.

In the late 1990s, political scientist René Lemarchand stated that the main ethnic groups claimed the Banyamulenge numbered around 50,000 to 70,000.^[1] Gérard Prunier quotes around 60,000–80,000, a figure of about 3–4 percent of the total provincial population.^[2][3] Lemarchand notes that the group represents "a rather unique case of ethnogenesis".