The Rusizi (also sometimes spelled Ruzizi) is a river, 117km long, that flows from Lake Kivu to Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa, descending from about 1,500m to about 770m above sea level over its length. The steepest gradients occur over the first 40km, and further downstream, the Ruzizi Plain, the floor of the Western Rift Valley, has only gentle hills, and the river flows into Lake Tanganyika through a delta. It is a young river, formed about 10,000 years ago when volcanism associated with continental rifting created the Virunga Mountains. The mountains blocked Lake Kivu's former outlet to the watershed of the Nile and instead forced the lake overflow south down the Rusizi and the watershed of the Congo.
Along its upstream reaches, the river forms part of the border between Rwanda on the east with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on the west, and further downstream it forms part of the border between the DRC and Burundi, and its lowermost reach lies entirely within Burundi. Reed swamps are common along the lower main stem of the river and its tribuaries. In a film documenting a widely publicized man-eating crocodile named Gustave (Capturing the Killer Croc), the narrator states that "In the 1950s, buffalo, elephants and common warthogs inhabited the plain; but they were progressively exterminated by man. The only survivor amongst the large mammals has been the hippopotamus. And they share the river, in an uneasy co-existence, with the nile crocodiles."
About the stamp
Because this stamp is not among the official releases of 2011, I believe that is one of the illegal releases listed here.
References
Ruzizi River - Wikipedia
Sender: Deo Niyongeso
Sent from Bujumbura (Bujumbura Mairie Province / Burundi), on 14.10.2014
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