[4][5] Over 25,000 Ruandans moved to the Masisi Territory between 1937 and 1945, later joined by about 60,000 immigrants between 1949 and 1955(In addition to the native Tutsi and Hutu from the former Rwandan Kingdom who had been cut off by the Berlin conference map cutout).
[4] Conflict arose when the Banyarwanda attempted to expand the jurisdiction of the chiefdom, and in 1957 the Belgians dissolved Gishari, leaving the immigrants under the authority of a Hunde mwami.
[11] After independence Banyarwanda elites attempt to cement their dominance over northern Kivu by encouraging illegal immigration and forcing indigenous chiefs out of Rutshuru.
[12] Hunde administrators began to replace Hutu ones appointed by the Belgians, and violent land disputes resulted in Banyarwanda becoming dispossessed throughout the region.
[14] According to René Lemarchand, the war started when the Hunde and Nande, spurred by the creation of North Kivu, revolted against the Banywarwanda in Masisi.
Early on in the conflict, Hunde militants burned the provincial administrative archives in an attempt to destroy local records of the Banyarwanda, thus reducing them to foreign status.
[16] The indigenous militants inflicted massacres upon Hutus and Tutsis,[1] and some territorial authorities arrested Banyarwanda leaders for "disobedience during an electoral period" (in light of the national elections scheduled for 1965).
[6] In October 1965 the North Kivu Provincial Assembly passed a resolution demanding the expulsion of Banyarwanda from the province, citing their "collusion with rebels".
[20][18] In 1981 the Legislative Council repealed the law and replaced it with an ordinance guaranteeing citizenship only to those individuals whose ancestors belonged to tribes which has resided in the Congo before 1908.