Nyamasheke district is divided into 15 sectors (imirenge): Ruharambuga, Bushekeri, Bushenge, Cyato, Gihombo, Kagano, Kanjongo, Karambi, Karengera, Kirimbi, Macuba, Nyabitekeri, Mahembe, Rangiro, Shangi.
Nyamasheke was originally part of the colony of German East Africa, which included what are now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika.
In 2009, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) announced that it was in possession of evidence implicating former businessman Yussuf Munyakazi in the genocidal massacres that occurred in 1994 in Nyamasheke.
[1] Munyakazi, a former wealthy rice farmer in the Western Province, was charged with counts of genocide, or complicity in the alternative and extermination as a crime against humanity.
[1] On 30 June 2010, the ICTR found Yussuf Munyakazi guilty of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, and sentenced him to 25 years’ imprisonment.