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Ituri Province#History

{{short description|Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo}}

{{redirect|Ituri|other uses|Ituri (disambiguation)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Infobox settlement

| name = Ituri

| native_name = Province de l'Ituri (French)
Mkoa wa Ituri (Swahili)

| type = Province

| image_skyline = Photo of the day 11.10.2015 (21868921339).jpg

| image_caption = Okapi Wildlife Reserve

| image_flag =

| image_seal = Emblem of Ituri Province.png

| image_map = Democratic Republic of the Congo (26 provinces) - Ituri.svg

| mapsize =

| coordinates = {{coord|1|50|N|29|30|E|type:adm1st_region:CG|display=inline,title}}

| subdivision_type = Country

| subdivision_name = {{flag|DR Congo}}

| established_title = Established

| established_date = 2015

| seat_type = Capital

| seat = Bunia

| blank_name_sec1 = Official language

| blank_info_sec1 = French

| blank1_name_sec1 = National language

| blank1_info_sec1 = Swahili

| area_total_km2 = 65658

| area_rank = 16th

| leader_title = Governor

| leader_name = Johnny Luboya Nkashama (military){{cite news |last1=Mokonzi |first1=Azarias |title=Ituri : le Lieutenant-Général Johnny Nkashama Luboya nouveau gouverneur dit venir pour imposer la paix |url=https://infocongo.net/2021/05/10/ituri-le-lieutenant-general-johnny-nkashama-luboya-nouveau-gouverneur-dit-venir-pour-imposer-la-paix/ |access-date=25 July 2022 |work=Infocongo |date=10 May 2021 |language=fr}}

| population_total = 4,392,200

| population_as_of = 2020

| population_rank = 7th

| population_density_km2 = auto

| population_demonym =

| demographics_type1 = Ethnic groups

| demographics1_title1 = Native

| named_for = Ituri River

| timezone1 = CAT

| utc_offset1 = +2

| website = {{URL|http://provinceituri.co/}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20180113094429/http://provinceituri.co/ archive]

| demographics1_info1 = Kakwa, Lugbara, Alur, Pygmies, Lendu, BaBira, AbaTooro, BaBali, BaNyali, BaNdaka

| registration_plate_type = License Plate Code

| registration_plate = {{flagicon|Democratic Republic of the Congo}} CGO / 07

| demographics1_title2 = Settler

| demographics1_info2 = BaHema, Banyarwanda

}}

Ituri Province ({{lang|sw|Jimbo la Ituri}} in Swahili) is one of the 21 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Ituri, Bas-Uele, Haut-Uele, and Tshopo provinces are the result of the subdividing of the former Orientale province.{{cite news |title=Découpage territorial : procédures d'installation de nouvelles provinces |url=https://www.radiookapi.net/actualite/2015/07/13/decoupage-territorial-procedures-dinstallation-de-nouvelles-provinces |access-date=5 June 2020 |work=Radio Okapi |date=13 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150719082607/http://radiookapi.net/actualite/2015/07/13/decoupage-territorial-procedures-dinstallation-de-nouvelles-provinces/ |archive-date=19 July 2015 |url-status=live |language=fr}} Ituri was formed from the Ituri district whose town of Bunia was elevated to capital city of the new province.{{cite web |title=Provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo |publisher=Statiods.com |url=http://www.statoids.com/ucd.html}}

Geography

File:Rainforest - Ituri (20874628148).jpg]]

The Ituri Rainforest is in this area, and is located northeast of the Ituri River and on the western side of Lake Albert. It has borders with Uganda and South Sudan.

Territories

Its five administrative territories are:

Geography

Ituri is a region of high plateau (2000–5000 meters) that has a large tropical forest but also the landscape of savannah. The province has rare fauna, including the okapi, the national animal of the Congo. As for flora, an important species is Mangongo, whose leaves are used by the Mbuti to build their homes.{{fact|date=February 2025}}

Economy

The Kilo-Moto gold mines are partly located in Ituri. In the beginning of the 21st century, petroleum reserves have been found by Heritage Oil and Tullow Oil on the shores of Lake Albert.

History

{{See also|Ituri conflict}}

Ituri, as Kibali-Ituri, was a province of the DRC from 1962 to 1966. Prior to the adoption of the 2006 Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the legal status of Ituri was a topic of some dispute. From the beginning of the Second Congo War in 1998, it was held by soldiers of the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) and the Ugandan-backed Movement for Liberation faction of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD-ML). In June 1999, the commander of UPDF forces in the DRC, Brig. Gen. James Kazini, ignored the protests of RCD-ML leaders and re-created the province of Kibali-Ituri out of the eastern section of the northeastern Orientale province.{{Cite web |title=Background to the Hema-Lendu Conflict in Uganda-Controlled Congo (Human Rights Watch Press release, ) |url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/africa/hemabckg.htm |access-date=2022-12-18 |website=www.hrw.org}} It is almost always referred to simply as Ituri. The creation of the new province under the political rivalry contributed to the start of the current Ituri conflict, which has caused thousands of deaths. Most official cartographers did not include the new province, and those referring to it as a "province" rather than a "region" were sometimes viewed as having a pro-Uganda bias. With the new constitution, Ituri's status as a province was finally settled.

=Approximate correspondence between historical and current province=

class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center"

|+Approximate correspondence between historical and current province

! colspan=4 | Belgian Congo

! colspan=2 | Republic of the Congo

! colspan=2 | Zaire

! colspan=2 | Democratic Republic of the Congo

1908191919321947196319661971198819972015
22 districts4 provinces6 provinces6 provinces21 provinces + capital8 provinces + capital8 provinces + capital11 provinces11 provinces26 provinces
Bas-Uele

|rowspan=9|Orientale

|rowspan=5|Stanleyville

|rowspan=5|Orientale

|rowspan=2|Uele

|rowspan=5|Orientale

|rowspan=5 colspan=2|Haut-Zaïre

|rowspan=5|Orientale

|Bas-Uele

Haut-Uele

|Haut-Uele

Ituri

|Kibali-Ituri

|Ituri

Stanleyville

|rowspan=2|Haut-Congo

|rowspan=2|Tshopo

Aruwimi
Maniema

|rowspan=4|Costermansville

|rowspan=4|Kivu

|rowspan=2|Maniema

|rowspan=4 colspan=2|Kivu

|rowspan=2 colspan=3|Maniema

Lowa
rowspan=2|Kivu

|Nord-Kivu

|colspan=3|Nord-Kivu

Kivu-Central

|colspan=3|Sud-Kivu

Government

{{Update|section|inaccurate=yes|reason=the interim administration was dissolved in 2005 or 2006 |date=April 2019}}

An Ituri Interim Administration was formed through the efforts of the Ituri Pacification Commission, a commission sponsored by the United Nations Organization Mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC, abbreviation of the French name "Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo") that was set up, after much initial delay, in 2003 after the pull-out of Ugandan troops from the district. It led to the creation of the Ituri Interim Assembly, which elected an administrator and an assembly chairperson; the current assembly chairperson is Petronille Vaweka, who is also the sole deputy for the district to the National Assembly in Kinshasa.

The Interim Assembly will be reconstituted or replaced by a provincial assembly under the 2006 constitution. An election for the governor and vice-governor will also be held, and the district will be re-created as a province of the DRC.

=Presidents, later governors, of Kibali-Ituri from 1962–1966=

=Governors of Ituri since 1999=

Demographics

File:Over Bunia.jpg from the air]]

The population is composed primarily of Alur, Hema, Lendu, Ngiti, Bira and Ndo-Okebo, with differing figures on which one of the groups constitutes the largest percentage of the population in the province. The Mbuti, a pygmy ethnic group, reside primarily in the Ituri forest near the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, although some Mbuti have been forced into urban areas by deforestation, over-hunting and violence.

The 2020 population was estimated to be 4,392,200.{{Cite web |title=Congo (Dem. Rep.): Provinces, Major Cities & Towns – Population Statistics, Maps, Charts, Weather and Web Information |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/drcongo/cities/ |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=www.citypopulation.de}}

See also

References

{{reflist}}

Further reading

  • WOLTERS, S., 2005. Is Ituri on the Road to Stability? An update on the current security situation in the district. Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies.

External links

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20070611002307/http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/cases/ICC-01-04-01-06-39-AnxB4_English.pdf 2006 map of Ituri district]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20120609162924/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42032 Cautious Calm Settles Over War-scarred Ituri Region, Michael Deibert, Inter Press Service, April 2008]

{{authority control}}

{{Provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo}}

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Category:Provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Category:Ituri conflict