During the Rwandan Civil War thousands of Rwandan refugees arrived in the region in 1994, fleeing from advancing troops of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
However Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC) troops, the armed forces of the RCD-Goma, continued to occupy the city of Kanyabayonga along with local mostly Hutu militias created and directed by the North Kivu Governor Eugene Serufuli.