Request to Add Bukavu or Goma to the IANA Africa/ Time Zone Database
Dear IANA Time Zone Database Team, My name is Marcel Shabani, a software developer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). I am writing to kindly request consideration for the inclusion of Bukavu or Goma as distinct representative locations under the Africa/ region in the IANA Time Zone Database. Currently, many systems default to Africa/Lubumbashi for regions in the eastern DRC. But, cities like Bukavu<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukavu> and Goma<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goma> are geographically distant from Lubumbashi and represent significantly different parts of the country. Having a more locally relevant TZ identifier (e.g., Africa/Bukavu or Africa/Goma) would greatly improve accuracy for residents, developers, and organizations operating in these regions. I understand that the TZ Database prioritizes representation rather than exhaustive listings, but adding one of these major cities would help ensure better alignment with real-world usage across eastern DRC. Thank you for your time, and I appreciate your continued work in maintaining this globally important resource. I am happy to provide any additional information if needed. Kind regards, Marcel Shabani -- Marcel Baguma Shabani Managing Director Tuunganes marcel.shabani@tuunganes.com | <https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=mshabani@ctrl-qs.com> Contact in Teams<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=marcel.shabani@tuunganes.com> 006K, Avenue Pere Georges Defour Bukavu DRCongo https://tuunganes.com [cid:05ebfea4-d90b-40bb-b78f-ee12a0668f21]<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c8100903c3844ae28a49622612817121@...> Book time to <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c8100903c3844ae28a49622612817121@...> discuss | Prendre rendez-vous
https://data.iana.org/time-zones/theory.html "If all clocks in a region have agreed since 1970, give them just one name even if some of the clocks disagreed before 1970, or reside in different countries or in notable or faraway locations. Otherwise these tables would become annoyingly large. For example, do not create a name Indian/Crozet as a near-duplicate or alias of Asia/Dubai merely because they are different countries or territories, or their clocks disagreed before 1970, or the Crozet Islands are notable in their own right, or the Crozet Islands are not adjacent to other locations that use Asia/Dubai." —Doug Ewell Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G, an AT&T 5G smartphone Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg> ________________________________ From: Marcel Shabani via tz <tz@iana.org> Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2026 3:01:40 AM To: tz@iana.org <tz@iana.org> Subject: [tz] Request to Add Bukavu or Goma to the IANA Africa/ Time Zone Database Dear IANA Time Zone Database Team, My name is Marcel Shabani, a software developer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). I am writing to kindly request consideration for the inclusion of Bukavu or Goma as distinct representative locations under the Africa/ region in the IANA Time Zone Database. Currently, many systems default to Africa/Lubumbashi for regions in the eastern DRC. But, cities like Bukavu<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukavu> and Goma<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goma> are geographically distant from Lubumbashi and represent significantly different parts of the country. Having a more locally relevant TZ identifier (e.g., Africa/Bukavu or Africa/Goma) would greatly improve accuracy for residents, developers, and organizations operating in these regions. I understand that the TZ Database prioritizes representation rather than exhaustive listings, but adding one of these major cities would help ensure better alignment with real-world usage across eastern DRC. Thank you for your time, and I appreciate your continued work in maintaining this globally important resource. I am happy to provide any additional information if needed. Kind regards, Marcel Shabani -- Marcel Baguma Shabani Managing Director Tuunganes marcel.shabani@tuunganes.com | <https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=mshabani@ctrl-qs.com> Contact in Teams<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=marcel.shabani@tuunganes.com> 006K, Avenue Pere Georges Defour Bukavu DRCongo https://tuunganes.com [cid:05ebfea4-d90b-40bb-b78f-ee12a0668f21]<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c8100903c3844ae28a49622612817121@...> Book time to <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c8100903c3844ae28a49622612817121@...> discuss | Prendre rendez-vous
So all one has to do is convince their government to make a time change for even a single day, and that will warrant a new zone. 🤔 On Mon, Feb 23, 2026, 11:47 AM Doug Ewell via tz <tz@iana.org> wrote:
https://data.iana.org/time-zones/theory.html
"If all clocks in a region have agreed since 1970, give them just one name even if some of the clocks disagreed before 1970, or reside in different countries or in notable or faraway locations. Otherwise these tables would become annoyingly large. For example, do not create a name Indian/Crozet as a near-duplicate or alias of Asia/Dubai merely because they are different countries or territories, or their clocks disagreed before 1970, or the Crozet Islands are notable in their own right, or the Crozet Islands are not adjacent to other locations that use Asia/Dubai."
—Doug Ewell
Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G, an AT&T 5G smartphone Get Outlook for Android <https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg> ------------------------------ *From:* Marcel Shabani via tz <tz@iana.org> *Sent:* Saturday, February 21, 2026 3:01:40 AM *To:* tz@iana.org <tz@iana.org> *Subject:* [tz] Request to Add Bukavu or Goma to the IANA Africa/ Time Zone Database
Dear IANA Time Zone Database Team, My name is *Marcel Shabani*, a software developer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). I am writing to kindly request consideration for the inclusion of *Bukavu* or *Goma* as distinct representative locations under the *Africa/* region in the IANA Time Zone Database. Currently, many systems default to *Africa/Lubumbashi* for regions in the eastern DRC. But, cities like *Bukavu <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukavu>* and *Goma <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goma>* are geographically distant from Lubumbashi and represent significantly different parts of the country. Having a more locally relevant TZ identifier (e.g., *Africa/Bukavu* or *Africa/Goma*) would greatly improve accuracy for residents, developers, and organizations operating in these regions. I understand that the TZ Database prioritizes representation rather than exhaustive listings, but adding one of these major cities would help ensure better alignment with real-world usage across eastern DRC. Thank you for your time, and I appreciate your continued work in maintaining this globally important resource. I am happy to provide any additional information if needed. Kind regards, *Marcel Shabani*
--
*Marcel Baguma Shabani*
Managing Director
Tuunganes marcel.shabani@tuunganes.com | <https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=mshabani@ctrl-qs.com>Contact in Teams <https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=marcel.shabani@tuunganes.com> 006K, Avenue Pere Georges Defour Bukavu DRCongo https://tuunganes.com
<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c8100903c3844ae28a49622612817121@...> Book time to <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c8100903c3844ae28a49622612817121@tuunganes.com?anonymous&ep=bwmEmailSignature>discuss | Prendre rendez-vous
On Feb 23, 2026, at 8:46 PM, Matt Johnson-Pint via tz <tz@iana.org> wrote:
So all one has to do is convince their government to make a time change for even a single day, and that will warrant a new zone. 🤔
Yes. The tzdd isn't a database of locations, it's a database of timezones, which are defined as regions "whose clocks all agree about timestamps that occur after the POSIX Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC)": https://data.iana.org/time-zones/theory.html A map from geographic locations to timezones: https://data.iana.org/time-zones/tz-link.html#boundaries can be useful when combined with the tzdb, but that's a separate project. A table giving a list of cities in each timezone would also be useful, but, again, that's a separate project. Having a tzdb entry for every city of note is *not* a goal of the tzdb project.
Interesting that they use the example of the Crozet Islands. While Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_France) and https://learnfrenchwithalexa.com/blog/why-does-france-have-so-many-timezones show the Crozet Islands as UTC +4, many other sites show them as UTC +5, including https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/france/ile-de-la-possession-crozet-is... , https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/@936338, https://www.worldtimezone.com/wtz019.php, and https://time.now/region/archipel-des-crozet/. Which is correct? On Mon, Feb 23, 2026 at 11:47 AM Doug Ewell via tz <tz@iana.org> wrote:
https://data.iana.org/time-zones/theory.html
"If all clocks in a region have agreed since 1970, give them just one name even if some of the clocks disagreed before 1970, or reside in different countries or in notable or faraway locations. Otherwise these tables would become annoyingly large. For example, do not create a name Indian/Crozet as a near-duplicate or alias of Asia/Dubai merely because they are different countries or territories, or their clocks disagreed before 1970, or the Crozet Islands are notable in their own right, or the Crozet Islands are not adjacent to other locations that use Asia/Dubai."
—Doug Ewell
Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G, an AT&T 5G smartphone Get Outlook for Android <https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg> ------------------------------ *From:* Marcel Shabani via tz <tz@iana.org> *Sent:* Saturday, February 21, 2026 3:01:40 AM *To:* tz@iana.org <tz@iana.org> *Subject:* [tz] Request to Add Bukavu or Goma to the IANA Africa/ Time Zone Database
Dear IANA Time Zone Database Team, My name is *Marcel Shabani*, a software developer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). I am writing to kindly request consideration for the inclusion of *Bukavu* or *Goma* as distinct representative locations under the *Africa/* region in the IANA Time Zone Database. Currently, many systems default to *Africa/Lubumbashi* for regions in the eastern DRC. But, cities like *Bukavu <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukavu>* and *Goma <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goma>* are geographically distant from Lubumbashi and represent significantly different parts of the country. Having a more locally relevant TZ identifier (e.g., *Africa/Bukavu* or *Africa/Goma*) would greatly improve accuracy for residents, developers, and organizations operating in these regions. I understand that the TZ Database prioritizes representation rather than exhaustive listings, but adding one of these major cities would help ensure better alignment with real-world usage across eastern DRC. Thank you for your time, and I appreciate your continued work in maintaining this globally important resource. I am happy to provide any additional information if needed. Kind regards, *Marcel Shabani*
--
*Marcel Baguma Shabani*
Managing Director
Tuunganes marcel.shabani@tuunganes.com | <https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=mshabani@ctrl-qs.com>Contact in Teams <https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=marcel.shabani@tuunganes.com> 006K, Avenue Pere Georges Defour Bukavu DRCongo https://tuunganes.com
<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c8100903c3844ae28a49622612817121@...> Book time to <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c8100903c3844ae28a49622612817121@tuunganes.com?anonymous&ep=bwmEmailSignature>discuss | Prendre rendez-vous
On 2026-02-27 18:42, Aaron Brown via tz wrote:
Which is correct?
Good luck figuring that out! As Crozet’s only settlement, the base Alfred Faure on Île de la Possession, is supplied by ship from Réunion[1], and the station’s longitude is a bit west of Réunion’s, it seems unlikely that its time zone would be an hour east of Réunion’s. Still, it would be nice to have more definite confirmation. The best source that I could find that might help resolve the confusion was a 2015 Le Monde article[2] quoting a letter from François Garde, the superior administrator of French Southern and Antarctic Lands from 2000 through 2004, suggesting that Crozet moved from +05 to +04 on 2000-09-01. However, as near as I can make it out that letter was for stamp collectors and I would like something a bit more definitive; quite possibly any 2000-09-01 change merely altered the law to match already-existing practice. [1]: https://institut-polaire.fr/en/subantarctic-islands/subantarctic-islands/ [2]: https://www.lemonde.fr/mondephilatelique/article/2015/11/23/cecile-pozzo-di-...
It would be kind of ironic if they actually did change their time zone in 2000, in which case it would not be a good example of somewhere not deserving its own entry in the database. On Fri, Feb 27, 2026 at 8:14 PM Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
On 2026-02-27 18:42, Aaron Brown via tz wrote:
Which is correct?
Good luck figuring that out!
As Crozet’s only settlement, the base Alfred Faure on Île de la Possession, is supplied by ship from Réunion[1], and the station’s longitude is a bit west of Réunion’s, it seems unlikely that its time zone would be an hour east of Réunion’s.
Still, it would be nice to have more definite confirmation. The best source that I could find that might help resolve the confusion was a 2015 Le Monde article[2] quoting a letter from François Garde, the superior administrator of French Southern and Antarctic Lands from 2000 through 2004, suggesting that Crozet moved from +05 to +04 on 2000-09-01. However, as near as I can make it out that letter was for stamp collectors and I would like something a bit more definitive; quite possibly any 2000-09-01 change merely altered the law to match already-existing practice.
[1]: https://institut-polaire.fr/en/subantarctic-islands/subantarctic-islands/ [2]:
https://www.lemonde.fr/mondephilatelique/article/2015/11/23/cecile-pozzo-di-...
participants (6)
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Aaron Brown -
Doug Ewell -
Guy Harris -
Marcel Shabani -
Matt Johnson-Pint -
Paul Eggert