Minova is a strategic town in the Kalehe Territory, South Kivu Province/ Eastern-DRC and is an important business center for Farm-Fishery Products in the Kivu Province.It is very close to Idjwi Island, Masisi Territory, Lake Kivu on its North Western shore and is only 45 km from the Goma city.The development of this place is linked with an important refugee's history in northern South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is known for atrocities committed there in 2012.
History
Minova is clearly one point of the Buhavu Chiefdom, headed by the Mwami Ntambuka dynasty, in the Kalehe Territory. But the migrations of refugees and Humanitarians made this place to be developed, added to the recent activity of mining/minerals discovered in the surrounding mountains of Minova where Colombo-Tantalite and other minerals were discovered and extracted recently. Normally people from Minova are Havu, Hunde, Bashi or Shi, Banyarwanda and Nyanga ethnic groups. They live in a community of farmers, fishermen and small business entrepreneurs. The main products are commercialized with Idjwi, Kibuye, Bukavu,Kabare, Walikale, Masisi, Goma and Gisenyi inhabitants. People here are mostly Christians and Catholicism is very vivid. There is a catholic parish here and a General Hospital managed by the Catholic church together with Kirotshe General Hospital managed by the DRC state and CEMUBAC as its partner.There are many schools, primary and secondary schools, including College Charles Lwanga which is held by the catholic church. Some Guest Houses and Hotels are just being built, with many NGOs implementing their operational bases here. There was international outrage and UN condemnation of these actions against hundreds of Congolese civilians. In 2014 the DRC Army conducted the "Minova Trial", at which numerous women testified. It was the largest rape tribunal in DRC history. In the end, only junior officers were convicted at the trial. An international summit was held in London in 2014 to work on actions against rape in warfare. But the women of Minova are still at risk, and many were attacked again as area violence continued. Since 1994 Minova has grown from a village to a large town, primarily due to the influx of refugees and from the fighting associated with the First and the Second Congo wars, and subsequent continued fighting in this eastern area. As of 2012 Minova had grown to incorporate the former village of Butando and Buzi-Bulenga to the northwest. On June 13, 1999, the fugitive, Valérie Bemeriki, genocidaire and former Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collinesanimatrice, was arrested in Minova. For three days in 2012, troops of the DRC committed systematic rapes and atrocities against refugee women and girls, who had been run out of Goma, then controlled by M23 rebel troops. Among the perpetrators were members of the US Special Forces-trained 391st Commando Battalion.
Geography
Minova is located in northeastern Kalehe Territory at the head of a deep bay, Kabuno Bay, on the western shores of Lake Kivu.Minova is linked to Bukavu by road and Lake Kivu, to Goma by road and Lake Kivu, to Kibuye and Gisenyi by Lake Kivu, and to Masisi by road. The bed rock consists of metamorphic schists and quartzites.
Climate
classifies its climate as tropical wet and dry.It is characterized by a very long rain season and a moderate dry season. This is a mountainous tropical climate and the temperature is under 30 Celsius degrees for the whole year..
Representation in other media
The American documentary The Testimony was made about the women and their testifying at the Minova trial.
