1890s - Goma occupied by agents of the Congo Free State as a trading post to control traffic on Lake Kivu; previously a way point for lake traffic and a crossroads for the overland trade routes between Central Africa and the Indian Ocean.
1910 - Goma confirmed as a Belgian possession in the Convention on the Lakes signed in Brussels on 14 May 1910 by plenipotentiaries of Belgium, Germany, and Great Britain.[1]
Karen Büscher (2011). Conflict, state failure and urban transformation in the Eastern Congolese periphery: the case of Goma (PhD). Belgium: Ghent University. hdl:1854/LU-2092391.