 Sake has hosted Rwandans during the Great Lakes refugee crisis of the mid-1990s and Goma residents fleeing the 2002 eruption of Mount Nyiragongo.Deadly battles between the government military and forces led by Laurent Nkunda led thousands of residents of Sake to flee in August 2006.On 25 November 2006, fifteen to twenty thousands fled battles between Nkunda forces and the DRC army in an offensive waged by the former in the area of Sake.