In 1987 the mission of the 45,000 People's Militia was territorial defence, and it was to function under the leadership of local military commanders. Gaddafi contended that it was the People's Militia that met the Egyptian incursions during the border clash of 1977, although the Egyptians insisted that their successful raids had been contested by regular army units. The militia forces are not known to have faced any other test that would permit an appraisal of their performance in home defence or as auxiliaries to the regular army. There was some evidence that local commanders had not responded energetically to their responsibility for training and supervising militia units. Militia units were reportedly generously equipped with arms, transport, and uniforms. In November 1985, it was announced that the first contingent of "armed people" trained as paratroopers had made a demonstration drop. Thousands of People's Militiamen were part of the Libyan expeditionary force that was airlifted to Uganda in 1979. The Libyan troops were supposed to help defend the collapsing regime of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, an ally of Gaddafi, amid the Uganda–Tanzania War. Like the other Libyan units sent to Uganda, the People's Militia was ill-prepared (some militiamen were not even informed that they were supposed to fight, and had believed theirs to be a pure training mission) and consequently suffered heavy losses during the Battle of Lukaya and Battle of Entebbe. Amin's government was overthrown, and the surviving Libyans were forced to flee Uganda.