page_title: Military history of Uganda
section_title: Anti-Amin rebellion and the Ugandan-Tanzanian War
hierarchical_section_title: Military history of Uganda / Under Idi Amin (1971–1979) / Anti-Amin rebellion and the Ugandan-Tanzanian War
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Cropped version of Bundesarchiv Bild 183-76054-0003, Leipzig, Kenia-Tag, Gerald Götting.jpg
context_page_description: The military history of Uganda begins with actions before the conquest of the country by the British Empire. After the British conquered the country, there were various actions, including in 1887, and independence was granted in 1962. After independence, Uganda was plagued with a series of conflicts, most rooted in the problems caused by colonialism. Like many African nations, Uganda endured a series of civil wars and coup d'états. Since the 2000s in particular, the Uganda People's Defence Force has been active in peacekeeping operations for the African Union and the United Nations.
context_section_description: Amin was also preoccupied with the dissident groups that Obote had gathered in exile in Tanzania.  In late 1972, a small rebel force crossed the border with the apparent intention of capturing the army outpost at Masaka, but stopped short and instead waited in expectation of a popular uprising to overthrow Amin.  The uprising did not materialize and the Obote-aligned force was expelled by the Malire Mechanical Regiment.  The event prompted Amin to task the General Service Unit, now renamed the Special Research Bureau, and the newly formed Public Safety Unit with an intensified search for suspected subversives.  Thousands of people were disappeared. Amin also retaliated by further purging the army of Obote supporters, predominantly those from the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups.
  The political environment became increasingly unstable and paranoia-inducing as the regime continued and Amin's circle of supporters grew smaller and smaller due the purges and disappearances.  In 1978, General Mustafa Adrisi, an Amin supporter, was injured in a suspicious automobile accident and units loyal to him, including the once-loyal Malire Mechanized Regiment, mutinied.  Amin sent loyalist units to crush the uprising, causing some of the mutineers to flee south into Tanzania.   Amin, seeking to deflect blame and rally the populace, then accused Tanzania's Nyerere of being the cause of the fighting and sent troops across the border to formally annex 700 miles of Tanzania known as the Kagera Salient on 1 November 1978.  In response, Nyerere declared a state of war and mobilized the Tanzania People's Defence Force for a full-scale conflict.  Within several weeks, the Tanzanian army was expanded from 40,000 to over 100,000 with the addition of police, prison guards, militia and others. They were joined by the various anti-Amin forces, who in March 1979 coalesced into the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF).  The UNLF was composed of the Obote-led Kikosi Maalum and the Front for National Salvation, led by political newcomer Yoweri Museveni, as well as several smaller anti-Amin groups.
  The Tanzanian army, with the support of the UNLF, drove the Ugandan forces out of Tanzania and began an invasion of Uganda.  The Ugandan army offered little resistance and retreated steadily, spending much of its energies looting the countryside.  Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi sent 3,000 troops to support the Ugandan defense, but these troops found themselves fighting on the front lines, as Ugandan units in the rear commandeered their supply trucks to carry their plunder away.  On 11 April 1979, Kampala fell to the invaders and Amin fled into exile, marking the first time in the post-colonial era that an African nation successfully invaded another.
caption: Milton Obote regained power in 1980, after Tanzanian forces aided by the Uganda National Liberation Front defeated Amin's forces in the Ugandan-Tanzanian War.
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