The Tshopo Falls bridge was the scene of an alleged massacre during the Second Congo War in 2002. In May of that year two officers in the RCD-Goma, Laurent Nkunda and General Amisi, are alleged to have been among those responsible for the brutal suppression of an attempted mutiny, during the course of which 160 people were executed.

In one incident men under Nkunda's command were reported to have bound, gagged and executed 28 people and put their bodies in bags weighed down with stones, before throwing them off the Tshopo Bridge.

None of this has ever been proven, however. In 2003 the RCD-Goma were merged with the Congolese national army and Nkunda was named a general, but he refused to report to Kinshasa and formed a breakaway group claiming to be protecting Tutsi interests in the Kivus ( he had been a member of the RPF in the early 90's when they invaded Rwanda and brought an end to the genocide there.)

In 2009 Nkunda was arrested by the Rwandans as part of a deal with the DRC over access by the Rwandans to Eastern Congo and it was reported that he was to be charged with war crimes by the ICC, but this has never happened.