Pweto Chiefdom

Pweto
Houses along the road from Pweto to Dubie, Katanga
Pweto
Coordinates: 8°28′00″S 28°54′00″E / 8.46667°S 28.9°E / -8.46667; 28.9Coordinates: 8°28′00″S 28°54′00″E / 8.46667°S 28.9°E / -8.46667; 28.9
Country	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Province	Haut-Katanga Province
Territory	Pweto Territory
Population (2010)
• Total	24,767
Climate	Aw
National language	Swahili

Pweto is a town in the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is the administrative center of Pweto Territory. The town was the scene of a decisive battle in December 2000 during the Second Congo War which resulted in both sides making more active efforts to achieve peace. Pweto and the surrounding region were devastated during the war. As of 2011^[update] little had been done to restore infrastructure or rebuild the economy. The town is served by Pweto Airport.

Pweto lies at the north end of Lake Mweru on the border with Zambia. The Luvua River, a headstream of the Congo River, leaves the lake just west of Pwetu to flow north to its confluence with the Lualaba River opposite the town of Ankoro. Where the Luvua exits the lake it runs through a series of violent rapids, falling several meters from the lake level. The Mitumba mountains rise to the west, forming a giant barrier between the lake and the Congo Basin broken by the Luvua valley. A fertile plain stretches to the north and east.

Rainfall over the lake averages around 1,080 millimetres (43 in) annually, with the most rain in December. The average annual temperature is around 23 °C (73 °F). October is the warmest month with daily maxima up to 34 °C (93 °F), while July is the coolest with mean temperature of 20 °C (68 °F). The lake has abundant and diverse fish, the most important economically being Oreochromis macrochir, and fishing is an important part of the economy. The local people also practice small-scale agriculture, growing cassava, millet, maize, groundnuts and sweet potatoes.

The Belgian and British colonial governments agreed that the border between the Belgian Congo and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), ran from the point where the Luvua leaves the lake in a straight line running eastward to a point on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. This has the effect of technically placing the shoreline of the town in Zambian territory.