UGANDA: HERE IS WHAT BEFELL WEST NILE REGION AFTER THE OVERTHROW OF IDI AMIN

By CHANGE OF GUARDS

Prior to the 1971 military takeover, Iddi Amin had been strengthening his power base by conscripting people from the West Nile region into the army. They played a key role in his 1971 military coup and the subsequent consolidation of power through the purge of Acholi and Langi soldiers in the Uganda Army (UA). The 1972 influx of Sudanese refugees into Uganda also helped boost the regime as several were enlisted into the security apparatus. The likes of Brig.Taban Lopayi and Col. Juma Oris among others were said to have been Sudanese. He had built a big house in Juba which was being rented by the British Council representative. The Ugandan Nubians who were settled in different parts of the country were also closely associated with the regime's intelligence services. They are descendants of Emin Pasha troops who were driven out of Khartoum following the defeat of Gen. Gordon around 1870s. They had been picked by British Colonialists and brought to Uganda where they pioneered the colonial army. These West Nile tribes and Nubians were perceived as some of the key beneficiaries of the redistribution of the property left by the expelled Indians in 1972.

As the Tanzanian led military offensive to overthrow Iddi Amin in 1978/79 neared Kampala, rumours were rife that the so-called liberation forces intended to wipe out all Madi, Alur, Lugbara and Kakwa. In other places of Uganda, those communities were being victimized for Iddi Amin's crimes forcing them to retreat to West Nile. In West Nile, these communities embarked on fleeing the West Nile region to Sudan and Congo as early as 1978. They came in private cars, lorries, some in helicopters, tractors and with all their personal belongings including cattle. Those with the means even made several trips back and forth to bring their property from Uganda. Others came with no possessions or means of transport. In Sudan, they settled mainly in Yei River District where they negotiated with local chiefs for farmland around border areas. Others found accommodation or built houses at the border towns of Kaya and Baze. Others made their way straight to Juba and Khartoum. The government of Sudan arranged temporary accommodation in classrooms. Other people lived in temporary shelters in Kaya, Yei, Kajo Keji and Juba. Local authorities provided food for them from their limited resources.

In Congo, they settled mainly around Custom Posts. Those closely associated with the Iddi Amin regime who had run to Kenya were rounded up and forcefully returned to Uganda where they faced death, torture and forced disappearances.

The Kakwa, who are Iddi Amin's tribe, were the earliest entrants in Congo and Sudan. They acquired farmland and easily integrated courtesy of their dialect with the Kakwa of Sudan and Congo. The Nubians who comprised only 1% of the refugee population were among the earliest to depart from Uganda by first fleeing to Kenya. From Nairobi they connected to Sudan where they moved away from border areas and settled in Juba, Yei and Kaya. Their Arabic dialect facilitated their adoption of petty trade and Hawking. The thousands of Sudanese refugees who had been living in Uganda since 1972 and had come to be closely associated with the Iddi Amin regime also joined the exodus back to Sudan. During their stay in Uganda, many had joined Uganda's security forces and composed the core of the so-called notorious Iddi Amin's henchmen. They facilitated the easy reception and settlement of the first wave of Ugandan refugees in 1979. They also helped in linking with the Sudanese authorities for the formation of the dissident groups. The Alur, Lugbara and Madi also followed suit before the arrival of the so-called Liberation Forces. However, many more civilians remained inside Uganda but hiding in the bushes away from their homes. It is expected that by May 1979, about 25,000 refugees lived in and around Juba and by June the figure had risen to 40,000. 

The Tanzanian troops reached West Nile in June 1979, two months after the fall of Kampala. Their major objective was to reach Iddi Amin's home area of Koboko where they found no living soul. The residents had fled through Maracha leaving no hut, food granary, chicken hut unburnt while all the food crops in the field had been either uprooted or slashed. The defeated former members of the Uganda Army (UA) were the last to leave for Congo and Sudan. The arrival of the Tanzanian army convinced some civilians to return to their homes. Others even returned to other parts of Uganda to check on their property only to find them either destroyed or looted cleanly. The short-lived harmony was disrupted by the conduct of the Tanzanians. They grabbed watches, radios, TV sets, bicycles, motorcars, clothes, lorries, and factory machinery. While the Tanzanians were looting, the Ugandan members of UNLA were carrying out killings. They didn't distinguish between ordinary civilians and former members of the defeated U.A as they were all victimized for Iddi Amin's crimes. Many civilians were often falsely accused of being former soldiers and subjected to harassment, arrests and summary executions. In July 1979 the army had declared the disarmament of all former soldiers. Many handed in their guns and filled surrender forms expecting to be reinstated into military service. Many never returned from District headquarters where they had reported themselves as they were wither summarily executed or arrested and ferried away. This development further fuelled their flight into Sudan and Congo.

The military atrocities in West Nile provided a fertile ground for the newly founded Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF). Based in Sudan, the UNRF was comprised of former soldiers and was under the leadership of then Brig. Moses Ali who had earlier been Iddi Amin's Minister of Finance before they fell out and he fled the country. The Sudan government and its security forces supported UNRF. In April 1980, the Tanzanian army withdrew from West Nile after warning of dire consequences from the UNLA. More ethnic Madi exiles from Moyo fled to Sudan around the same time. Armed resistance groups came up among those in exiles and in October 1980, they made their first devastating attack inside Uganda. The UNLA responded with grave atrocities against civilians. Its attack on Ediofe Mission left six people dead including a Nun. The poorly facilitated UNLA lacked discipline and was thriving on looting, killing and smuggling. Arua town was overrun with ease and the UNLA could not stop the destruction of government property, factories and missions. On October 9, the UNLA attacked Arua Hospital where they raped nurses at the hostel.

The region was deserted and even the internally displaced who had taken refuge at missions were being harassed by the same UNLA soldiers. The government set up a five man fact finding mission in the West Nile districts of Moyo, Arua and Nebi (October 25 - November 22). The team saw the horror by soldiers in Moyo. Daily ambushes had made the Moyo - Yumbe - Koboko road completely impassable. For the December 1980 General Elections, Registrars followed refugees across the border into Congo for registration. Obote campaigned in West Nile and narrowly survived being killed there. The rampage by the UNLA helped the UPC parliamentary candidates to return unopposed. Civilians who dared to sneak back into their homes to collect food were being shot on sight. After elections, attacks on civilians continued and in one incident a retaliatory attack by the UNLA on a market place on the bank of River Angurua in Terego left several dead. Continued UNLA atrocities against civilians saw a fresh influx of refugees across the borders while many others remained displaced within the region. The major towns and other urban centres were deserted save for sex workers who served the UNLA. In the countryside, homesteads were abandoned and people were living deep in the bushes and only stealthily coming to look for food.

Sudanese authorities set up the first settlement camp for Ugandan refugees at Tore around late 1979. This marked the formal beginning of relief assistance. Refugees who had re-established themselves, more especially the Kakwa, settled along the border areas and more so in the fertile Yei River stretch resisted being relocated to settlement camps. While some Ugandan refugees had fled with some level of wealth to start afresh, many others were reduced to abject poverty and had to survive on relief assistance in settlement camps. A former regional Governor in Uganda was thriving on selling Samosas to UNHCR staff. Soon another camp adjacent to Tore Settlement was set up to handle the influx. In October1980 Kala Settlement Camp was set up. Two other camps were established around the same time in response to the influx of refugees from the tensions in Moyo. Those refugees who had brought along thousands of cattle were settled at Mondikolo. Their cattle were affected by Tsetse Flies and the stock of 3,900 heads on arrival had reduced to a paltry 250 heads by 1983 with disease having claimed 75%. More settlement camps were established at Mogiri, Lumbe (July 1981) and Wonduruba (March1983). The so-called food rations provided by relief agencies like Oxfam comprised of one kilogram of sorghum and half Kg of fish powder (mukene) for a week. With the prevalence of Kwashakor or other nutrition related diseases among both children and adults, the death rate was very high. By 1982, many were too weak to undertake farming. Shortage of tools and seeds was another big encumbrance Those self settled refugees outside the settlement camps had no access to medical and education services and with time shortage of farmland ensued.

In Congo, the UNHCR set up agricultural settlements away from borders and provided them with relief assistance. Many refugees preferred to stay outside the settlements. The local Congolese army would often connive with the Uganda authorities and the UNLA to enter Congo and attack refugees. In April 1983, the Congolese army issued a notice to self-settled refugees outside the settlements to quit with a choice of either returning to Uganda or going to Sudan. Consequently, an exodus of Ugandan refugees from Congo who had refused to go to the settlement camps entered Sudan. In Sudan, Ugandan refugees took with them the much needed employment skills since their hosts faced scarcity of technically trained personnel. Former soldiers concealed their military backgrounds in order to gain relief assistance and employment. Many acquired Sudanese Nationality Certificates by irregular means but lack of the Arabic language was a cause of fear. The Sudan Asylum Act of 1974 barred employment of refugees without a work permit but the local authorities were ignorant about the same. When the authorities of Yei River District distributed copies of the said law, tension increased. All professional staff of National Tobacco Company (NTC) were former Ugandan soldiers. However, when NTC attempted to employ a Ugandan mechanic in December 1983, Sudanese employees threatened to go on strike. Those who would lose jobs would resume refugee status in order to access relief assistance.

By early 1982, thousands of Ugandan refugee families had established settlements along the entire border stretch. The families of the dissident refugee fighters also found shelter in this setting. Throughout 1982 - 83, the UNLA carried out cross border attacks on refugee settlements along the border in Sudan. Within West Nile, the conduct of UNLA forced many internally displaced people to seek sanctuary deeper into thickets and forests. The UNLA would make inscriptions on walls of abandoned houses "Lugbara killed our people, now it must be our turn to kill them." In Sudan, the Lugbara refugees, specifically from Aringa county, were stereotyped as being thieves. Civilian youth gangs came up to rampage the countryside in the West Nile region and to some extent in the settlement camps in Sudan. In both instances, there was total breakdown of human conscience and destruction of social values. The elderly, the sick and disabled or very young were abandoned to fend for themselves.

Around early 1981, civilians joined former soldiers under UNRF to provide protection of their people and property against the rampaging UNLA. The insurgents gained the upper hand against the UNLA. Initial successes against the UNLA had witnessed some of the former army officers return to West Nile from Sudan and Congo. The Leader of the UNRF, Brig. Moses Ali registered support from Libya. He made it clear that his organization had no intentions to bring back Iddi Amin to power. Consequently, Col. Elly Hassan who claimed to be in touch with Iddi Amin who was to send arms, ran a parallel organization that he called Uganda Army. After he had overrun Arua, he declared Koboko the central command headquarters and that Koboko was to belong to only Kakwas. Interestingly, instead of ferrying arms and ammunition that had been captured from Arua Barracks, the guerrillas were seen giving priority to TV sets and other valuables that they had looted. Soon after the UA was preoccupied with smuggling of coffee and committing atrocities against civilians. No wonder, the UNRF fought and pushed the UA out of West Nile leaving the UNLA to take control. By February 1982, normalcy had returned in Arua and refugees we're returning. UA's Elly Hassan settled down on Kaya border with his 60 remaining men and concentrated on smuggling of coffee. The group would set up roadblocks to steal from civilians crossing into Congo. On June 24, 1981, the UNLA attacked Ombachi Catholic Mission and its adjacent Ombachi College where internally displaced refugees had sought sanctuary. They indiscriminately killed an estimated 100 innocent souls by shooting, lynching, stabbing, killing and detonation of explosives.

The rebels collected tax from refugees who had self-settled forcing many to relocate to the settlement camps. The UNLA unable to confront the guerrillas in the bush turned to civilians for vengeance. By the end of 1982 the UNRF had no other source of arms other than what it could capture from the UNLA. Factionalism among the guerrilla groups was detrimental while loyalty was for hire. The UNRF attacked the UNLA's supply lines making it hard for the latter to achieve meaningful operational successes. UNLA soldiers would be seen uprooting cassava stems for food while others sold arms and ammunition to Sudanese in exchange for food. Some UNLA personnel like Museveni's James Kazini defected to UNRF. The UNRF was hit by ethnic and religious tensions. The 1982 meeting inside Uganda attempted to drop Moses Ali from leadership when E. Mondo (a Christian) refused to take up leadership. Another UNRF meeting at Chei in September 1982 approved the formation of a civilian political wing.

With the October 1982 dry season in West Nile, the UNLA resorted to burning of bushes in order to expose the insurgents' hideouts. Consequently, with little resistance it pushed the insurgents to the border with Sudan. In the same regard, a fresh influx of tens of thousands of refugees entered Sudan. Lack of cohesion within UNRF coupled by harsh treatment of civilians led to loss of confidence. It imposed taxes on refugees in return for movement permits in and out of Uganda. Those intercepted without the said permit were accused of being UNLA collaborators, a charge that attracted summary execution while the lucky ones would be released upon payment of huge ransoms. The local government authorities in Kajo Keji ordered all self-settled refugees to abandon their settlements and go to Kansuk settlement camp. A method of deliberate looting of their crops and property was devised in order to compel them to leave for the camp. Following the late September successes by the UNLA against the rebels, incursions into refugee settlements inside Sudan became routine through 1983 and 1984. These incursions were characterised by abductions, killings and destruction of property.

In September 1983 the UNLA established friendly relations with the Sudanese civil and military authorities in Kajo Keji. They even had a football match between the two armies in Kajo Keji. UPC officials from Uganda visited Mondiko and Mogiri settlements away; they announced that they were to return with lorries to ferry refugees back to Uganda. Around 1984 Uganda's intelligence officers spent weeks inside Sudan got satisfied that the refugees were providing the guerrillas with the necessary human and logistical resources. Consequently, the government of Uganda formally asked Sudan to relocate refugees away from the border. In compliance, Six new settlement camps were opened in Mudiri district alone. By November 1984 UNLA officers were having commercial deals with Sudanese army officers based at Kaya. A November 15,1984 UNLA attack at Araba Mijui left many killed and others abducted. The Sudanese military arrested several ethnic Lugbara refugees whom they accused of complicity. Maj. Saidi Abiriga was shot dead together with his 17 years old daughter. Conspicuously, the Sudanese military took the trouble to display his body to Ugandan military officials at Oraba border. On November 20, 1984 two lorry loads of refugees were rounded up from Bazi and taken to Goli transit centre There was a military clash in Obongi on the Christmas Day of 1984 and the situation remained tense mid 1985 when Obote was overthrown by an Acholi faction of the UNLA. The Okello government invited the UNRF which joined hands to fight Museveni's NRA in Western Uganda.  These UNRF fighters were the ones commonly referred to as the Anyanyas. When Museveni took power in 1986, some remnants of the former fighting groups from West Nile reorganized in Sudan and Congo to continue fighting but couldn't sustain the struggle. Museveni told the Ugandan refugees in Sudan and Congo to just walk back home the same way they had fled.

All this happened when Idi Amin was comfortably living in Saudi Arabia together with his entire family. The entire West Nile region has never recovered from the brunt of its so-called close association with the Iddi Amin regime.

Its regional Capital, Arua is the only so-called city in Uganda that has grass thatched shacks.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM