The Virunga Mountains, sometimes the “Virunga” also spelled Birunga, also called Mufumbiro Mountains, are a chain of volcanoes in East Africa, that sit North of Lake Kivu in east-central Africa, extending about 50 miles (80 km) along the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. The mountain range is a branch of the Albertine Rift Mountains, which border the western branch of the East African Rift in which lie Lakes Kivu and Edward. Of the eight major Virunga volcanic Mountains, the highest is Karisimbi that points at 14,787 feet (4,507 metres). The name Virunga (also known as “Volcanoes”), probably of a Swahili origin, has prevailed over the earlier Mufumbiro which locally translates to “That Which Cooks”, which is still used in Uganda. Individual volcanoes bear Rwandan descriptive names, such as Sabinio, this Sabinyo being a local word that translates to “Old Man with Large Teeth” and Muhavura that also means “Landmark,” or “Guide”.

Not more than 20,000 years ago Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira emerged at the western end of the chain, both with extensive craters. The main crater of Nyiragongo is about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) across and contains a liquid lava pool. The lava field of these two volcanoes has remained active, with notable eruptions occurring in 1912, 1938, 1948, the 1970s, and 2002. On several occasions a lava stream reached the shores of Lake Kivu. The 2002 Nyiragongo eruption destroyed much of the nearby city of Goma, Congo, leaving thousands homeless. Many lesser cones flank the major volcanoes.

In 1861 the British explorer John Hanning Speke saw the Virunga Mountains from a distance; in 1876 the British explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley obtained a clear though distant view of the three eastern volcanoes; and Count Adolf von Götzen, a German, explored the two western volcanoes in 1894. The first maps resulted from the major expedition of Adolf Friedrich, duke of Mecklenburg, which was undertaken in 1907–08. Modern access to the western volcanoes is from Goma and Gisenyi (Rwanda); the remaining mountains are located within the circuit of roads connecting Goma and Rutshuru (Congo), Kisoro (Uganda), and Ruhengeri and Gisenyi (Rwanda).