South Kivu (Sud-Kivu in French) is a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Bukavu.

The province South Kivu was created in 1969 when dividing the previous province Kivu. Already from 25 April to 28 December 1966, there existed a province South Kivu.

Sud-Kivu borders the provinces of North Kivu to the north, Maniema to the west, and Katanga to the south. To the east it borders the countries of Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania.

Administratively, the province of Sud-Kivu is divided into eight territories:

In the legal view, this province has three major cities of importance: Baraka (Fizi Territory), Bukavu (Provincial Capital) and Uvira (Uvira Territory).

The city of Bukavu has experienced an exponential urban growth since colonial times. Sadiki et al. (2010) report about 620,000 inhabitants for 2008. The population growth rate has increased incredibly in 2002 due to the entry of massive population from Goma after the Nyiragongo eruption of 17 January 2002.

The Banyamulenge, the term historically describing the ethnic Tutsi Rwandans (Banyarwanda) concentrated on the Itombwe Plateau of the province, have been the focus of much controversy. The ambiguous political and social position of the Banyamulenge has been a point of contention in the province, in the wake of incursion by fleeing Interahamwe forces responsible for the genocide of Rwandan Tutsis into the Kivu region after the liberation of neighboring Rwanda by the Tutsi-led RPF, leading to the Banyamulenge playing a key role in the run-up to the First Congo War in 1996-7 and Second Congo War of 1998-2003.

Kivu was the name for a large "Region" in the Democratic Republic of Congo under the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko that bordered Lake Kivu. It included three "Sub-Regions" ("Sous-Regions" in French): Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Maniema, corresponding to the three current provinces created in 1986. The capital of the Kivu Region was in Bukavu, and the capitals of the three Sub-Regions were in Goma, Uvira and Kindu.

Kivu is also the name for the entire region surrounding Lake Kivu, including the portions in Rwanda which contain the vast majority of the lake area's population (the contiguous towns of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo and Gisenyi, Rwanda, with a combined population approaching 1,000,000, form the largest urbanised area in the Lake Kivu area) . The area is characterized by lush vegetation and an extended growing season due in part to its high altitude (1500 m or 4900 ft at the lakeshore) and the volcanic nature of its soil. The Kivu region represents the high point of the East African Rift Valley.

Marietje Schaake (Leiden, 28 October 1978) is a Dutch politician for the social liberal party Democrats 66. Since July 2009, she has served as a member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), as well as the Committee of International Trade (INTA) and the Committee on Culture, Media and Education (CULT). She also sits on the Parliament's Delegation for relations with the United States and the Delegation for relations with Iran, and the delegation for relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. In March 2011 the European Parliament adopted Schaake's report on the cultural dimensions of the EU's external actions. Schaake is currently the rapporteur for the first EU strategy on digital freedom in foreign policy. Marietje Schaake is a Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the Board of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. She is also vice-chair of the Supervisory Board of Free Press Unlimited, and serves on the Board of Governors of the European Internet Foundation.