Manono | |
|---|---|
 Manono from the air | |
  Manono | |
| Coordinates: 7°17′41″S27°27′16″E / 7.294704°S 27.454491°E | |
| Country | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Province | Tanganyika |
| Territory | Manono |
| Climate | Aw |
| National language | Swahili |
Manono is a town and territory in Tanganyika Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Manono was seriously affected by the Second Congo War (1998-2003), with many buildings destroyed. Rally for Congolese Democracy rebels and allied Rwandan soldiers took control of Manono in 1999. [1] [2] A hydro-electric power plant used to provide electricity, and the town used to have a brewery, which supplied the surrounding region; both were destroyed during the war. [3]
The UN carried out arms decommissioning in 2008, offering to accept guns in exchange for a bicycle. The scheme was successful in removing weapons. [4] Manono later became affected by the Katanga insurgency; by 2014/15, Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga, the leader of the Mai Mai Kata Katanga rebel group, operated in the area before relocating. Elements of his group continued to hold out in Manono Territory. In November 2021, three commanders and 169 Mai Mai Bakata Katanga militants surrendered to the government in Manono's Mpyana sector. [5]
Manono lies on the western bank of the Lukushi River, a tributary of the Luvua River. The town is a river port, with barges bringing cargo from Lubumbashi. [3] Manono is also connected to a disused railway line [3] [6] to Muyumba. [7] The town lies along National Road 33 (N33) and Regional Road 628 (R628). [8]
Economic activity is centered on mining, with the surrounding area containing approximately 100 million tonnes of minerals, including spodumene (lithium), columbite, tin and tantalite. [3] [9] Mining by Géomines began in 1915. [10] The Manono-Kitolo mine was worked almost continuously until the late 1970s, first by Géomines and later by Congo-Etain and Zairetain. Perhaps 180,000 tonnes of cassiterite ore were extracted in this period. [11]
The collapse of the world tin price in the 1980s severely hit the town's economy. [3] However, since 2017 exploration has been underway for lithium minerals and tin at the historical tin mine in the Manono - Kitotolo region, with over $100 million spent by Australian mining company AVZ to assist the development of the mine and broader region. [12]
The town is served by Manono Airport. [13] Manono has a cathedral which was built by Belgian missionaries, and was severely damaged during the war. [3]
Manono has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw).
| Climate data for Manono | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 25.0 (77.0) | 25.2 (77.4) | 25.7 (78.3) | 25.8 (78.4) | 25.4 (77.7) | 24.2 (75.6) | 24.4 (75.9) | 25.5 (77.9) | 26.5 (79.7) | 26.1 (79.0) | 25.2 (77.4) | 24.8 (76.6) | 25.3 (77.5) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 172 (6.8) | 146 (5.7) | 199 (7.8) | 122 (4.8) | 17 (0.7) | 2 (0.1) | 0 (0) | 6 (0.2) | 44 (1.7) | 90 (3.5) | 161 (6.3) | 181 (7.1) | 1,140 (44.7) |
| Source: Climate-Data.org [14] | |||||||||||||
The economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has declined drastically around the 1980s, despite being home to vast potential in natural resources and mineral wealth; their gross domestic product is $69.474 billion as of 2023.
Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba, and Haut-Katanga provinces. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province.
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The Manono-Kitolo mine is a former tin and coltan mine, which also contains one of the largest lithium reserves globally, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mine is located in southern Democratic Republic of the Congo in Tanganyika Province. The Manono-Kitolo mine has reserves amounting to 120 million tonnes of lithium ore grading 0.6% lithium thus resulting 0.72 million tonnes of lithium.
Mai-Mai Kata Katanga, also called Mai-Mai Bakata Katanga, is a mai-mai rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which advocates the independence of the Congo's Katanga Province. It was formed shortly after the group's leader, Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga, escaped from prison in September 2011 where he was serving a sentence for crimes against humanity committed by his supporters between 2002 and 2006 in central Katanga. Kata Katanga means "cut [e.g. secede] Katanga" in Swahili. It has been estimated that, at its height in 2013, the Kata Katanga rebels numbered approximately 3,000 of whom most were based in Mitwaba Territory.
The Katanga insurgency is an ongoing rebellion by a number of rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some of which aim for the creation of a separate state within Katanga. While the insurgency has been active in various forms since 1963, insurgent groups have recently redoubled their efforts after the 2011 jail break that freed Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga, who commanded the majority of the Katangese separatist groups until his surrender to Congolese authorities in October 2016.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Géomines was a Belgian mining company active in the Belgian Congo and then in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was established in 1910, and exploited a large deposit in the southeast of the country to become one of the largest tin producers in the world. It was taken over by Zairetain in 1968.
Cominière was a Belgian holding company active in the Belgian Congo. It was involved in plantations, forestry, mining, railways and other activities. The Congo assets were nationalized when the Democratic Republic of the Congo became independent in 1960. What remained of Cominière was acquired by Lonhro in 1971.
The Compagnie Minière des Grands-Lacs (MGL) was a Belgian mining company active in the Belgian Congo and then in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was established in 1923 and in 1976 merged with other companies into the Société Minière et Industrielle du Kivu (SOMINKI). The company was active in the eastern regions of Maniema and Kivu, with its main center at Kamituga in today's South Kivu. It extracted gold, tin and other minerals.
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