This Usalama Project report sketches the historical background to the proliferation of armed groups that have emerged in the North Kivu province of the DRC over the past two decades. It serves primarily to demystify the numerous factions and the cleavages between them, as well as to outline the complex mix of grievances that drive conflict. ‘Violence in the eastern DRC can be bewildering in its complexity’, says the report’s author, Usalama Project director Jason Stearns. ‘Disentangling these differences can help explain the major obstacles to peace in the region’.