The Banyamulenge are a group of ethnic Tutsis living in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They are concentrated in the province of South Kivu close to the Burundi-Congo border. Banyamulenge tension with other tribes was a contributing influence in the start of the First Congo War in 1996, the Second Congo War in 1998 and continues to a point of contention in the ongoing peace process.

Approximately 300,000 Tutsi moved from Rwanda into what is now the DRC around the end of the nineteenth century and became known as the Banyamulenge. However, the differences in language and culture resulted in competition and tension with other ethnic groups residing in the region. This was codified in 1981 when the government denied the Banyamulenge citizenship. In early 1994 the head of the Burundian rebel Forces pour la Défense de la Démocratie(FDD) toured the Hauts Plateux, apparently in planning for the expulsion of the Banyamulenge residents. Also, in response to the Rwandan genocide in 1994 thousands of Banyamulenge crossed into Rwanda to assist their kinsmen and helped expel the Hutu government from power and caused many Hutu militants to flee into Congo. The same year the government of President Paul Kagame used the Banyamulenge citizenship issue to claim that Kivu was historically part of Rwanda and invade the DRC. The Rwandan genocide, and Burundian civil war, thus threw the differences between the Banyamulenge and their neighbors in sharp relief, vastly increased tensions.

In response to this perceived threat the Banyamulenge threw their support behind the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) efforts, backed by Rwanda and Burundi, to overthrow the government of Mobutu Sese Seko. They formed militia groups to assist the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) and, when popular opinion turned against the foreign occupiers, to defend themselves against Mai-Mai groups fighting the foreign invaders or seeking to expel the Banyamulenge because of their perceived connection to Rwanda. The two Mai-Mai groups most active against the Banyamulenge are the Babembe and Barenga militias. Banyamulenge are forever perceived as Rwandan tools after the current civil war was sparked by the mutiny of the Banyamulenge 10th Brigade in Bukavu against President Laurent Kabila. Regardless of this perception and the ethnic connection, the various Banyamulenge militias and the Rwandan government forces are clearly separate. In early 2002, there was extensive fighting on the Hauts Plateaux of South Kivu after Commandant Patrick Masunzu, an ethnic Banyamulenge in the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), gathered Banyamulenge support in an uprising against the RCD-Goma leadership. The RPA has also shown itself unwilling to take special efforts to defend its Banyamulenge kinsmen.

By 2000, the Banyamulenge were hemmed into the Hauts Plateaux by Congolese Mai-Mai, the Burundian FDD, and the Rwandan Hutu Armée de Libération du Rwanda (ALiR), and were unable to carry out basic economic activies without the security provided through the RCD-Goma. Numerous families fled to the relative safety of the Burundian capital of Bujumbura. Nevetheless, Banyamulenge make up much of the RCD military wing, the Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC), and control the towns of Fizi, Umbura and Malembe.