The town of Sake in Masisi, located at a crossroads, is the main headquarters of the United Nations Force Intervention Brigade (part of MONUSCO).

With support from the Belgians, one of the small local chiefs, Mwami André Kalinda, expanded his chiefdom, the Grande Chefferie des Bahunde to encompass of all of Masisi by 1935.

[8] During the colonial period in the 1940s and 1950s, the Belgian administration had a "dual colonization" policy of bringing in many immigrant white people and Banyarwanda (Hutus and Tutsis) to settle in the area, based on the promise of land.

The colonial parastatal Comité national du Kivu [fr] gave out long term leases to the settlers in Bashali Chiefdom, to focus on tea and pyrethrum cash crops.

Their immediate electoral success prompted a backlash from the Hunde population, who took control of local politics under the slogan udongo ya baba (father's land).

The Banyarwanda acquired the overwhelming majority of the ex-colonial plantations, such as the case of Barthélémy Bisengimana, who served as chief of staff for DRC president Mobutu as well as taking over the large Osso concession in Masisi.

[14] In the 1990s, Mobutu Sese Seko, the long-time dictator of the DRC, was facing growing opposition from various factions in the country, including rebel groups in the east.

The war officially ended in 2003 with the signing of the Sun City Agreement, but fighting continued in some parts of the country, including Masisi Territory.

During the conflict, Masisi Territory was a hotspot of violence and human rights abuses, with numerous reports of massacres, rape, and other atrocities committed by both rebel groups and government forces.

In July 2014, an offensive in the Masisi and Walikale Territories by the Congolese army and UN forces liberated 20 rebel controlled towns, freeing the local residents.