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Uganda–Tanzania War and Ugandan Bush War: A Visual History

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Visual history of a war

Tanzania's army overthrew Idi Amin in 1979; the chaos that followed produced Museveni's five-year guerrilla war and the Luwero killing fields.

Fought
1978 to 1986
Duration
8 years
Dates
October 1978 to April 1979; February 1981 to January 1986
Deaths
About 5,000 in the 1979 war; 100,000 to 500,000 in the Bush War, mostly Luwero civilians
1978-1979
Tanzania and Ugandan exiles v Amin's Uganda and Libyan troops
1981-1986
Museveni's NRA and other rebels v Obote's UNLA; Okello's junta
Result
Amin overthrown; Museveni's NRM government from 1986

The Uganda-Tanzania War (1978-1979) began when Idi Amin's troops invaded Tanzania's Kagera salient in October 1978; Julius Nyerere counter-attacked with 45,000 troops and Ugandan exiles, took Kampala on 11 April 1979 and Amin fled to Libya. The Ugandan Bush War (1981-1986) followed the disputed election that returned Milton Obote to power: Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army fought from the Luwero Triangle, where government troops killed perhaps 300,000 civilians. Obote was overthrown by his own army in 1985 and Museveni took Kampala on 26 January 1986. Uganda then found stability but no change of leader; Museveni remains president.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Uganda-Tanzania War and Ugandan Bush War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

15501600165017001750180018501900195020002050Uganda-Tanzania War and Ugandan Bush War (1978 to 1986)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Italian EmpireItalian Empire (1882 to 1947)Open: Cold WarCold War (1947 to 1991)Open: Ethiopian Civil War and Eritrean War of IndependenceEthiopian Civil War and Eritrean War of Independence (1961 to 1991)Open: Second Sudanese Civil WarSecond Sudanese Civil War (1983 to 2005)Open: Somali Civil WarSomali Civil War (1991 to present)Open: Burundian Civil WarBurundian Civil War (1993 to 2005)Open: First Congo WarFirst Congo War (1996 to 1997)

Estimated deaths under Uganda's regimes

075150225300Amin 1971-79: 300300Amin 1971-79Bush War 1981-86: 300300Bush War 1981-86LRA insurgency 1987-2006: 100100LRA insurgency 1987-2006thousands (approximate)

Timeline of the Uganda-Tanzania War and Ugandan Bush War

  1. 1978
    Amin invades KageraOctober.
  2. 1979
    Tanzania takes Kampala; Amin flees11 April.
  3. 1980
    Obote returns to power in disputed election
  4. 1981
    Kabamba attack; Bush War begins6 February.
  5. 1983
    Operation Bonanza in Luwero
  6. 1985
    Okello's coup; Nairobi accord
  7. 1986
    NRA takes Kampala26 January.

Amin's fall

Amin, who had seized power in 1971 and killed some 300,000 Ugandans, sent troops into Kagera in October 1978 to distract from a mutiny. Nyerere, who had sheltered Obote and other exiles, mobilised the Tanzania People's Defence Force and pushed into Uganda in January 1979; the Battle of Lukaya in March broke the Ugandan and Libyan defence, and Kampala fell on 11 April. Amin fled via Libya to Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003. Tanzania spent half a billion dollars it could not afford; a succession of provisional governments followed.

The Bush War

Obote won the December 1980 election amid fraud claims; Museveni, a former defence minister with a Marxist guerrilla past in Mozambique, launched the Popular Resistance Army with 27 men attacking Kabamba barracks on 6 February 1981. Merged into the NRA with Yusuf Lule's followers, it built a base among the Baganda peasants of Luwero north of Kampala. Obote's UNLA, largely Acholi and Langi northerners, responded with counterinsurgency that killed civilians on a scale exposed only when skulls were piled by the roads; the 'Luwero Triangle' became a byword.

Museveni's victory

Acholi officers under Tito Okello ousted Obote in July 1985; the NRA, now 10,000 strong, refused a Nairobi peace deal's terms and took Kampala on 26 January 1986. Museveni promised 'a fundamental change, not a mere change of guards'; the NRA absorbed the country but northern resistance produced the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency that lasted two decades. Museveni has been in power since, changing the constitution to stay.

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8 surprising things about the Uganda-Tanzania War and Ugandan Bush War

  1. The Uganda-Tanzania War was the first time an African state overthrew another's government by invasion.
  2. Amin's soldiers reportedly looted Kagera of everything down to door frames.
  3. Museveni began the war with 27 fighters and 27 rifles; the NRA's child soldiers, 'kadogos', were among its most loyal troops.
  4. Skulls from Luwero were displayed at roadside memorials and in the film 'The Last King of Scotland's' aftermath narratives.
  5. Nyerere's intervention nearly bankrupted Tanzania and he later called it a mistake to have stayed.
  6. Amin, who called himself Conqueror of the British Empire and King of Scotland, lived quietly in Jeddah for 24 years.
  7. Museveni's NRA hosted Paul Kagame and other Rwandan Tutsi exiles who later invaded Rwanda in 1990.
  8. Museveni was born in 1944; he has been president since 1986, one of the world's longest-serving leaders.

Sources

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