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Beni | |
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Ville de Beni | |
![]() National Road No. 2 is the main road in Beni | |
Coordinates: 0°30′N29°28′E / 0.500°N 29.467°E | |
Country | ![]() |
Province | North Kivu |
Government | |
• Mayor | Nyonyi Bwanakawa Masumbuko [1] |
Population (2013) | |
• Total | 231,952 |
Time zone | UTC+2 (Central Africa Time) |
Climate | Af |
Beni is a city in north eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, lying immediately west of the Virunga National Park and the Rwenzori Mountains, on the edge of the Ituri Forest.
Beni is home to a market, an airport and the Christian Bilingual University of Congo (UCBC). As of 2013 it had an estimated population of 231,952. [2] Beni contains four communes, or municipalities: Beni, Bungulu, Ruwenzori and Mulekera.
The town was the scene of fierce fighting in the Second Congo War around 2001. Beni also has many MONUC bases; elements of the Indian-led North Kivu Brigade are based in the town.
Between October 2014 and May 2016 over 500 people died in a series of attacks on Beni and its surrounding area that have been attributed to Ugandan Islamist rebels. [3] The Beni massacre occurred here in August 2016.
As of December 2018 Beni has been subject to over 200 cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) according to the World Health Organization. [4] Beni is near Mangina, the epicenter of the 2018–19 Kivu Ebola outbreak. [5]
On the third of June 2019 an attack in the city killed or wounded 25 people. ISIL claimed responsibility shortly afterwards. [6]
In 2020, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels reportedly orchestrated a prison escape from the Kangbayi prison, [7] and they killed and in many cases beheaded 25 people in the village of Tingwe. The rebels have been accused of 800 deaths. [8]
In 2023, the Makugwe massacre happened in a nearby village. [9] Beni became the temporary provincial capital of North Kivu following the capture of Goma in 2025 by the March 23 Movement. [10]
North Kivu is a province bordering Lake Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital city is Goma. Spanning approximately 59,483 square kilometers with a population estimate of 8,147,400 as of 2020, it is bordered by Ituri Province to the north, Tshopo Province to the northwest, Maniema Province to the southwest, and South Kivu Province to the south, as well as Uganda and Rwanda to the east.
The Allied Democratic Forces is an Islamist rebel group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government and the United States. It was originally based in western Uganda but has expanded into the neighbouring DRC. Most Ugandan ADF fighters are Muslims from the Baganda and Basoga ethnic groups.
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 rebel groups and the governmental FARDC troops, a number of national and international organizations have intervened militarily in the conflict, including the United Nations force known as MONUSCO, and an East African Community regional force.
Beni Territory, also known as Oicha Territory, is a territory of North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It's administrative center is the town of Oicha.
The Allied Democratic Forces insurgency is an ongoing conflict waged by the Allied Democratic Forces in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the governments of those two countries and the MONUSCO. The insurgency began in 1996, intensifying in 2013, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The ADF is known to currently control a number of hidden camps which are home to about 2,000 people; in these camps, the ADF operates as a proto-state with "an internal security service, a prison, health clinics, and an orphanage" as well as schools for boys and girls.
On 14 August 2016, multiple assailants raided the district of Rwangoma in the city of Beni which is located in North Kivu of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The city is located in the popular Virunga National Park. At least 64 people were killed, as 64 bodies had been located during the search. Officials estimate the death toll to be from 75 to 101. An unknown number of people were injured. The Ugandan rebel group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were suspected to be behind to attack by the DRC. The incident is another in a series of massacres in Beni that have left over 700 people dead since October 2014.
The 2017 Semuliki attack was an attack carried out by elements of the Allied Democratic Forces on a United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) operating base in the Beni Territory, North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on December 7, 2017. The attack was highly coordinated and resulted in the deaths of fifteen U.N. peacekeeping personnel and wounds to 53 others making it the deadliest incident for the U.N. since the deaths of twenty-four Pakistani peacekeepers in an ambush in Somalia in 1993. The attack was among many of the latest flare-ups in violence in the North Kivu region which borders Uganda and Rwanda and one of the ADF's deadliest attacks in recent history. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres labeled the attack, "the worst attack on UN peacekeepers in the organization's recent history."
The Kivu Ebola epidemic was an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) mainly in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and in other parts of Central Africa, from 2018 to 2020. Between 1 August 2018 and 25 June 2020 it resulted in 3,470 reported cases. The Kivu outbreak also affected Ituri Province, whose first case was confirmed on 13 August 2018. In November 2018, the outbreak became the biggest Ebola outbreak in the DRC's history, and had become the second-largest Ebola outbreak in recorded history worldwide, behind only the 2013–2016 Western Africa epidemic. In June 2019, the virus reached Uganda, having infected a 5-year-old Congolese boy who entered Uganda with his family, but was contained.
The 2020 Democratic Republic of the Congo attacks were a series of attacks which took place in 2020. The attacks were mostly carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a radical Islamist rebel group and the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), an agricultural and religious group made up of ethnic Lendu people. The attacks left at least 1,316 people dead and 132 injured.
Events in the year 2020 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Events in the year 2021 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Attacks were carried out by various armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2021 and 2022. The attacks have killed 629 and injured 321. At least 82 perpetrators were also killed and one injured in these attacks.
Events in the year 2021 in the Republic of the Congo.
On the night on June 5, 2022, militants from Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked the village of Bwanasura, in Otomabere, North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The attack killed over twenty civilians, marking one of the deadliest attacks by the ADF in 2022.
During 8–9 March 2023, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) carried out a massacre in the village of Mukondi in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On December 31, 2020, jihadist militants from the Islamic State affiliate Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Tingwe, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least thirty people. Several other civilians were kidnapped as well.
On March 12, 2023, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Kirindera, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing nineteen civilians. The massacre occurred days after the Mukondi massacre, where the ADF/ISCAP killed around forty civilians,
At 2am on March 15, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the town of Bulongo, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 15 people.
On August 28, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Kasanzi, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Nineteen civilians were killed in the massacre, and the attack was part of a larger spree by ISCAP against villages in Beni Territory.
On September 3, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Makutano, Oicha Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least thirty people.