Congolese Tutsi
Contrary to some erroneous writings, the Banyamulenge are neither an ethnic group nor a tribe from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The term Banyamulenge, which means people of Mulenge in Kinyarwanda, is rather a collective denomination of descendants of Tutsi migrants from Rwanda most of whom are concentrated on the Itombwe Plateau of South Kivu, close to the Burundi-Congo-Rwanda border. This term owes its origins to Fuliiru village, which in 1924, received the first group of Tutsi migrants before their dispersion in the highlands of South Kivu, where they were later joined, from 1959 to 1962 by successive waves of Tutsi refugees fleeing persecution. Its use has been controversial, but since the late 1990s following the Rwanda Genocide, it has been used by congolese Tutsi, formally known as Banyarwanda (people of Rwanda) to avoid being seen as foreigners.
The Banyamulenge have an ambiguous political and social position in Congo, which has been an issue of contention with other ethnic groups. They played a key role in the run-up to the First Congo War in 1996-7 and Second Congo War of 1998-2003.
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