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Why are the Virunga Mountains important to the drainage basins of the Nile and Congo rivers?
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East African mountains
Mountains and lakes of East Africa.
The Virunga Mountains are significant because they serve as a continental-scale divide that separates the drainage basins of the Nile River and the Congo River.12
By acting as a physical barrier between the basins of Lake Edward and Lake Kivu, these mountains effectively partition the flow of water between these two major river systems. Geologically, the eruption of the Virunga Mountains also played a historical role in altering regional hydrology; for instance, their formation blocked the rift, which likely diverted the drainage of Lake Kivu away from its former northward path into the Nile.23