Consequently, a purge of Acholi and Langi politicians and army officers was set in motion. The victims found it easier to escape from Uganda by sneaking to Sudan. Very soon a refugee camp cum guerrilla training base was set up at Owing Kibul in Present day South Sudan. In Tanzania, all non combatant Ugandan exiles were taken for military training at Mukuyu camp.
In July 1971, one Mukombe Mpambara who had earlier recruited Museveni into the intelligence services, managed to escape from Uganda to Tanzania via Rwanda. His arrival fueled the creation of Museveni's FRONASA as a Bantu group against the dominant Acholi and Langi. The exile community was mainly composed of Bantu (Kigezi and Bugisu) and majority Nilotics (Acholi and Langi) and by the end of 1971, an ethnic based split was visible. The deposed President Obote moved from Tanzania and set camp in Khartoum, Sudan. An attempt by dissidents to launch an attack from Southern Sudan was dealt a heavy diplomatic and military blow by the Iddi Amin government. Obote relocated back to Tanzania in June 1972.
In June 1972 the Sudan government under then President Nimery closed the Owing Kibul camp. All the Ugandan refugees were moved to Port Sudan on the Red Sea from where they were shipped via the Red Sea and then the Indian Ocean to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. The two weeks treacherous voyage saw a number of comrades buried at sea. From Tanga Port they were taken to a camp in the nearby Handeni from where they were told about plans to invade Uganda from Tanzania.
Indeed in September 1972 with the full backing of the Tanzanian government, the dissident fighters were moved from Mukuyu camp to an assembly point near Mutukula border from where they were ferried in lorries for the attack. The two columns of Ugandan dissidents attacked through Mutukula and Kikagati targeting to overun Masaka and Mbarara barracks respectively. Another contingent of 300 fighters were loaded into two navy ships and set sail on Lake Victoria with the objective of capturing Entebbe and Kampala. Their navy ships mysteriously capsized immediately after take off leaving two Acholi and eight Tanzanians who had been on the deck as the only survivors.
On the other front in Tanzania's Kagera region, the invasion went as planned. Within a few hours the government forces managed to thoroughly beat off the invaders. Many were killed and some captured before the rest withdrew back to Tanzania. Among the top leaders who escaped back to Tanzania were then Col. Tito Okello, Lt.Col. Oyite Ojok, Bazilio Okello and a one former Spy, Yoweri Museveni. Among the captured were former Ministers Joshua Wakholi and Alex Ojera, Capt. Oyile, Picho Ali and a one Wilfred Odong.
The defeated invaders reorganized and set camp across the border in Tanzania. The Uganda Air force carried out air raids targeting the Tanzanian northern region town of Bukoba. Tanzania mobilized its 4th Battalion from Tabora to the Uganda border as Uganda also amassed troops on its side of the border. Iddi Amin launched a diplomatic offensive to the UN and OAU accusing Tanzania of aggression. Nyerere also sent a telegraph to King Hassan of Morocco protesting Uganda's aerial attacks on Bukoba.
Libya's Gaddafi sent military aid to Uganda comprising of three Libyan Air force plane loads of army officers and arms. They were intercepted by Sudan and it was until the Libyans deceived the Sudanese that they were returning back to Libya, that they managed to successfully land in Uganda. It was amidst that confusion that on September 21st Uganda's Chief Justice, Ben Kiwanuka was kidnapped and disappeared without trace to this day. Then followed the Governor Bank Of Uganda, Joseph Mubiru and others like Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Kalimuzo and former Internal Affairs Minister, Basil Bataringaya. The Iddi Amin government blamed the kidnaps on exiled dissidents and their local agents. Indeed on October 1st 1972, Iddi Amin warned Rwandese refugees against espionage. This was in connection to Museveni having used Rwandese in both Kagera and Uganda to gather intelligence.
After both Kenya and Sudan shied away from mediating the Uganda/Tanzania standoff, Somalia's Said Barre stepped in by visiting both Uganda and Tanzania. He drafted a Five-point Peace Plan that was conveyed by Somalia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Omar Ghalib to both Kampala and Dar Es Salaam. The Peace Plan was signed on 5th October 1972 by the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Uganda and Tanzania, Wanume Kibedi and John Malechela. It required respective protagonists to withdraw their troops ten kms from the common border where Somali observers were to be stationed.
The Ugandan dissident fighters in Tanzania were declared refugees by the OAU and conditioned to be confined to a refugee camp at Kigwa, 15 miles east of Tabora Town in the direction of Dodoma. With an irregular supply of consumable aid, the Ugandan refugees were exposed to immense suffering. While Obote, Tito Okello, Oyite Ojok, Museveni and other top leaders were in the capital, Bazilio Olara Okello became the Camp Commandant of Kigwa. The refugees took to growing tobacco, maize and beans and charcoal burning for survival. To further cement the relations, Tanzania's Brig. Yusuf Himid delivered a goodwill message from his government to Iddi Amin (pictured together at the border). There was no further incident of open aggression from Tanzania but the dissidents resorted to clandestine methods of killings inside Uganda aimed at undermining and tarnishing the image of the Iddi Amin government.
In 1978 they were vastly mobilized into the Kikosi Maluum (Special Force) under the command of Oyite Ojok, Tito Okello, Bazilio Olara Okello and others to fight alongside the Tanzanian Army and eventually dislodged Iddi Amin from Power in April 1979. Kikosi Maluum and other smaller groups transformed into the new army called Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA). Tito Okello became the Army Chief while Oyite Ojok became the Chief of Staff and Museveni was the Minister of Defence with Obote regaining the presidency in 1980. In 1981 Museveni took to the Bush and started a guerrilla war that turned into a Bantu Vs Nilotics conflict.
We have seen how the Acholi and Langi paid with blood for opposing the Iddi Amin government. We have seen the origin of Kikosi Maluum as reason for the Acholi and Langi dominance of UNLA. What was the origin and where was the military camp of the much praised Museveni's FRONASA fighters?
INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM.
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