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Lake Kivu is one of the major lakes of Africa. It is located along the border between Congo and Rwanda, in the Albertine western Rift, and a portion of the Great Rift Valley. Lake Kivu pours into the Ruzizi River, which flows southward into Lake Tanganyika. It is a beautiful Inland Sea enclosed by steep, green hills. Its shores are surrounded by three towns: Gisenyi, Kibuye and Cyangugu which are an ideal stopping point to Relax, Swim, or take a Boat Excursion past the small Lakeside Villages that offer a rewarding glimpse of rural life. The world’s tenth biggest Inland Island lies in Lake Kivu as well, with Villages along its shore including Kalehe, Bukavu, Kabare, Sake and Goma in DRC Congo as well as Gisenyi, Kibuye and Cyangugu in Rwanda. Kivu offers a variety of fish species like Clarias, Barbus, Haplochromis and Nile Tilapia.

For Sunbathing, swimming and water sports, speedboats, canoe sailing, or just mountain walks and picnics, Kibuye will provide these facilities to your satisfaction.

There are lovely villas along the tree-lined shore…a beautiful white sandy beach…Kivu is crystal clear. This is a spot that deserves a longer stay.” Gisenyi, the most developed of these resorts, lies less than an hour’s drive from the Volcanoes National Park, (natural habitat of the rare mountain Gorillas), and is set on a sandy beach lined with swaying palms and colonial-era hotels that exude an atmosphere of tropical languor.

At Kibuye, to its south, tourist activities are centred on a modem lakeshore guesthouse overlooking pine-covered hills seemingly transplanted from the Alps. Different again is Cyangugu, close to Nyungwe Forest (Nyungwe National Park since 2005), whose more subdued tourist development is compensated for by a stirring setting of curving inlets

winding into narrow valleys. Lake Kivu is the largest of numerous freshwater bodies that shimmer in the valleys of Rwanda. Lakes Burera and Ruhondo, close to the gorilla-tracking centre of Ruhengeri, are oft-neglected gems, deep blue waters ringed by steep hills and tall waterfalls, with the nearby Virunga Volcanoes providing a spectacular backdrop.

Apart from being an attraction to tourists, Lake Kivu has been discovered to contain almost 55 billion cubic meters of liquefied methane gas at of 300 ms (about 1,000 ft into deep). Till 2004, extraction of the gas was practiced on a small scale, with the distilled gas being used for running boilers at a brewery, the Bralirwa found in Gisenyi. Rwandan government is in negotiations with a few parties as far as large-scale exploitation of this resource is concerned, to produce methane from the lake.

The Bisesero Genocide Memorial in Karongi District of the Western Province is currently under rehabilitation after more than 10 years in bad state.

The Rehabilitation project was funded by the Ministry of Sports and Culture, and supervised by the National Commission Against Genocide (CNLG). It is estimated at more than RWF 150 million according to CNLG agent at the site, mister Stanley ….

Part of the project consists of renovating the main part which stands right next to the memorial stone at the entrance, with spears all around as a sign of resistance by the fallen Tutsi brave men who fought with stones and spears. CNLG’s agent there said the roof of the main part was about to collapse because of rain water that had been kept atop for more than twelve years (since 1998).

The project also consists of expanding the site with more rooms representing places where the victims had come from seeking refuge on the Bisesero Mountain. The rooms will also display historic dark moments of the 1994  genocide which occurred in the eyes of French Soldiers who stood aside and looked when thousands of Tutsis (in zone turquoise) were brutally massacred by interahamwe militiamen and the ‘ex forces armées Rwandaises’ (former Rwandan Defense Force/EXFAR) before fleeing to neighboring Congo (the former Zaire) with the French.

The Bisesero Genocide Memorial is located about 31 kilometers from the lake side town of Kibuye. The beautiful mountain setting with breathtaking views of Lake Kivu is in sharp contrast to the horrifying violence that took place at this site during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Historically, the majority of people who lived in Bisesero were Tutsis, whose main activity was cattle breeding.  They were called ABASESERO, a name from which the region derived its name. More than 50 thousand Tutsis took refuge in the mountain’s wood, over 30 thousand were killed there.