The Hunde are an ethnolinguistic group of about 200,000 people (as of 1980) located in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

. The Hunde live in the province of Nord-Kivu

Nord-Kivu

Nord-Kivu is a province bordering Lake Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Its capital is Goma....

 and the regions of Masisi

Masisi

Masisi Territory is a territory in the Nord-Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is one of the places subject to the conflict between the Congolese army and militias, which has plagued the eastern Congo since the ending of the Second Congo War...

 and Rutshuru

Rutshuru

Rutshuru, sometimes called Rushuru, is a town located in the North Kivu province of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and is headquarters of an administrative district, the Rutshuru Territory. The town lies in the western branch of the Great Rift Valley between Lakes Edward and Kivu...

. The language of the Hunde is Kihunde, and alternate names are Kobi and Rukobi. The history of the Hunde since national independence has been bound up with that of the Kinyarwanda-speaking population in the region, including the recent First

First Congo War

The First Congo War was a revolution in Zaire that replaced President Mobutu Sésé Seko, a decades-long dictator, with rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Destabilization in eastern Zaire that resulted from the Rwandan genocide was the final factor that caused numerous internal and external actors...

 and Second Congo War

Second Congo War

The Second Congo War, also known as Coltan War and the Great War of Africa, began in August 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and officially ended in July 2003 when the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo took power; however, hostilities continue to this...

s.