The Battle of Lukaya (Kiswahili: Mapigano ya Lukaya) was a battle of the Uganda–Tanzania War. It was fought on 10 and 11 March 1979 around Lukaya, Uganda, between Tanzanian forces (supported by Ugandan rebels) and Ugandan government forces (supported by Libyan and Palestinian troops). After briefly occupying the town, Tanzanian troops and Ugandan rebels retreated under artillery fire. The Tanzanians subsequently launched a counterattack, retaking Lukaya and killing hundreds of Libyans and Ugandans.
President Idi Amin of Uganda had attempted to invade neighbouring Tanzania to the south in 1978. The attack was repulsed, and Tanzania launched a counterattack into Ugandan territory. In February 1979, the Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF) seized Masaka. The TPDF's 201st Brigade was then instructed to secure Lukaya and its causeway to the north, which served as the only direct route through a large swamp to Kampala, the Ugandan capital. Meanwhile, Amin ordered his forces to recapture Masaka, and a force was assembled for the purpose consisting of Ugandan troops, allied Libyan soldiers, and a handful of Palestine Liberation Organisation guerrillas, led by Lieutenant Colonel Godwin Sule.
On the morning of 10 March, the TPDF's 201st Brigade under Brigadier Imran Kombe, bolstered by a battalion of Ugandan rebels, occupied Lukaya without incident. In the late afternoon the Libyans attacked the town with rockets, and the unit broke and fled into the nearby swamp. Tanzanian commanders ordered the 208th Brigade to march to the Kampala road to flank the Ugandan-Libyan force. At dawn on 11 March the 208th Brigade reached its target position and the Tanzanian counterattack began. The regrouped 201st Brigade assaulted the Libyans and Ugandans from the front and the 208th from their rear. Sule was killed, precipitating the collapse of the Ugandan defences, while the Libyans retreated. Hundreds of Ugandan government and Libyan troops were killed. The Battle of Lukaya was the largest engagement of the war. Amin's forces were adversely affected by the outcome, and Ugandan resistance crumbled in its wake. The TPDF was able to proceed up the road and later attack Kampala.
Background
In 1971, Colonel Idi Amin launched a military coup that overthrew the President of Uganda, Milton Obote, precipitating a deterioration of relations with neighbouring Tanzania. Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere had close ties with Obote and had supported his socialist orientation. Amin installed himself as President of Uganda and ruled the country under a repressive dictatorship. Nyerere withheld diplomatic recognition of the new government and offered asylum to Obote and his supporters. He tacitly supported a failed attempt by Obote to overthrow Amin in 1972, and after a brief border conflict he and Amin signed a peace accord. Nevertheless, relations between the two presidents remained tense, and Amin made repeated threats to invade Tanzania.
Uganda's economy languished under Amin's corrupt rule, and instability manifested in the armed forces. Following a failed mutiny in late October 1978, Ugandan troops crossed over the Tanzanian border in pursuit of rebellious soldiers. On 1 November Amin announced that he was annexing the Kagera Salient in northern Tanzania. Tanzania halted the sudden invasion, mobilised anti-Amin opposition groups, and launched a counteroffensive. Nyerere told foreign diplomats that he did not intend to depose Amin, but only "teach him a lesson". The claim was not believed; Nyerere despised Amin, and he made statements to some of his colleagues about overthrowing him. The Tanzanian Government also felt that the northern border would not be secure unless the threat presented by Amin was eliminated. After the Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF) retook northern Tanzania, Major General David Musuguri was appointed commander of the 20th Division and ordered to push into Ugandan territory. In-mid February, Libyan troops were flown into Entebbe to assist the Uganda Army. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi felt that Uganda, a Muslim state in his view, was being threatened by a Christian army, and wished to halt the Tanzanians.
On 24 February 1979, the TPDF seized Masaka. Nyerere originally planned to halt his forces there and allow Ugandan exiles to attack Kampala, the Ugandan capital, and overthrow Amin. He feared that scenes of Tanzanian troops occupying the city would reflect poorly on the country's image abroad. However, Ugandan rebel forces did not have the strength to defeat the incoming Libyan units, so Nyerere decided to use the TPDF to take the capital. The fall of Masaka surprised and troubled Ugandan commanders, who felt that the defeat made Kampala vulnerable to attack. They mobilised additional forces and began planning for a defence of the city. The Uganda Army also showed first signs of disintegrating, as various high-ranking commanders disappeared or were murdered. One Ugandan soldier stated in an interview with Drum, a South African magazine, that "the situation is worsening every day and therefore our days are numbered". Meanwhile, the TPDF's 20th Division prepared to advance from Masaka to Kampala.
Prelude
The only road from Masaka to Kampala passed through Lukaya, a town 39 kilometres (24 mi) to the north of the former. From there, the route continued on a 25-kilometre (16 mi) causeway that went through a swamp until it reached Nabusanke. The swamp was impassable for vehicles, and the destruction of the causeway would delay a Tanzanian attack on Kampala for months. Though the TPDF would be vulnerable on the passage, Musuguri ordered his troops to secure it. The TPDF's 207th Brigade was dispatched through the swamp to the east, the 208th Brigade was sent west to conduct a wide sweep that would bring it around the northern end of the swamp, and the 201st Brigade under Brigadier Imran Kombe was to advance up the road directly into the town. The 201st consisted almost entirely of militiamen, many of whom had not seen combat. However, the unit was bolstered by a battalion of Ugandan rebels, led by Lieutenant Colonel David Oyite-Ojok.
A plan to destroy the causeway was presented to Amin in Kampala, but he rejected it, saying that it would inhibit his army's ability to launch a counteroffensive against the Tanzanians. He also believed that with Libyan support the TPDF would soon be defeated, and thus destroying and then rebuilding the causeway later would be unnecessary. According to diplomats, Amin initially planned to make a defensive "last stand" at Mpigi, a town located south of Kampala and north of Lukaya. On 2–4 March, the Uganda Army defeated a rebel attack during the Battle of Tororo, heartening Amin. Along with his commanders' urgings, the victory at Tororo persuaded the President to order a counteroffensive. On 9 March over a thousand Libyan troops and about 40 Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) guerrillas belonging to Fatah were flown into Uganda. They reinforced the about 400 PLO militants who were already in the country. The Libyan force included regular units, sections of the People's Militia, and members of the Pan-African Legion. They were accompanied by 15 T-55 tanks, over a dozen armoured personnel carriers, multiple Land Rovers equipped with 106 mm (4.2 in) recoilless rifles, one dozen BM-21 Grad 12-barrel Katyusha rocket launcher variants, and other large artillery pieces, such as 122 mm mortars and two batteries of D-30 howitzers. The PLO forces were commanded by Colonel Mutlaq Hamdan (alias "Abu Fawaz"), Major Wassef Erekat, Captain Juma Hassan Hamdallah, and Captain Ibrahim Awad.
Amin ordered the Libyans, together with some Ugandan troops—including the Artillery & Signals Regiment, the Chui Regiment, and possibly the Suicide Battalion—and PLO fighters, to recapture Masaka, and a force assembled for the purpose at the northern edge of the swamp between Lukaya and Buganga. The Libyan and PLO commanders drew up plans for a counteroffensive in great secrecy due to fears that the Uganda Army included illoyal elements. With the exception of Amin, the Ugandan military leadership was informed of the battle plans only just before the operation began. Lieutenant Colonel Godwin Sule, an Ugandan paratrooper commander, was placed in charge of the operation. The PLO fighters were integrated into the Ugandan units, with Colonel Hamdan co-commanding tank and infantry forces, while Major Erekat assumed command of part of the artillery. The Libyan troops were briefed about the operation at Mitala Maria. Radio Uganda announced the counteroffensive's beginning at noon on 9 March, while the Ugandan forces present in Lukaya withdrew.
Battle
10 March
On the morning of 10 March the TPDF conducted a light bombardment of Lukaya, which had been deserted by the populace. The 201st Brigade then occupied the town to await crossing the causeway the next day, and they began to dig trenches as a precautionary measure. The Tanzanians and the Ugandans and Libyans were unaware of each other's positions. In the late afternoon, around three o'clock, the Ugandan-Libyan-Palestinian force began its advance toward Lukaya, with orders to take Masaka within three hours. Upon seeing the Tanzanians at dusk, they initiated a barrage with the Katyusha rockets. The artillery overshot them, but the mostly inexperienced Tanzanian soldiers were frightened, and many of them broke rank and fled. Though others remained at their defensive positions, they were nonetheless surprised and quickly forced to withdraw into the swamp along the Masaka road after seeing the Libyan T-55s and three Ugandan M4A1 Sherman tanks advancing toward them. Nobody was killed in the action. Despite its orders to recapture Masaka, the Ugandan-Libyan force stopped in Lukaya, fearing that the Tanzanians were trying to bait them into an ambush. The Libyans established defensive positions but did not dig any trenches. Instead, the troops were allowed to rest, while the commanders prepared for the next phase of the battle. Only three Tanzanian tanks guarded the road. Kombe and his subordinates tried to reassemble their brigade so it could continue fighting, but the soldiers were shaken and could not be organised.
Tanzanian commanders decided to alter their plans to prevent the loss of Lukaya from turning into a debacle. The 208th Brigade under Brigadier Mwita Marwa, which was 60 kilometres (37 mi) north-west of the town, was ordered to reverse course and as quickly as possible cut off the Ugandans and Libyans from Kampala. The tanks on the Masaka road were instructed to advance and open fire on the Ugandan and Libyan positions. Their drivers were hesitant to do so without infantry support, so Musuguri dispatched one of his officers to the area to ensure that the order was carried out. Volunteers were recruited from the 201st Brigade to infiltrate Lukaya through the swamp and gather intelligence. Overnight the situation was dominated by confusion; the Ugandan-Libyan-Palestinian force and the TPDF's 201st Brigade were disorganised, and troops from both sides moved around in the darkness (there was no moonlight) along the road and in the town, unable to differentiate between each other. In one incident, Oyite-Ojok was leading a band of Kikosi Maalum (KM) fighters down the road when they heard other persons talking in Swahili. Oyite-Ojok and his group assumed they were allies, but then one of them said in Luo—a language not spoken in Tanzania, "Just wait until morning and we'll crush these stupid Acholi". Oyite-Ojok instructed his men to open fire, but in the dark they were unable to verify if they had struck anybody. The Tanzanian patrols were largely unsuccessful in verifying the Ugandan-Libyan positions, so their tanks' fire was ineffective. Over the course of the night eight Tanzanian soldiers and one KM fighter were killed.
11 March
The 208th Brigade reached its flanking position at the Kampala road at dawn on 11 March and began the counterattack. The regrouped 201st Brigade attacked from the front and the 208th from behind, thereby putting great pressure on the Ugandan-Libyan force. The Ugandan rebels under Oyite-Ojok aided the attack. Precisely aimed Tanzanian artillery devastated the ranks of the Ugandan-Libyan force, particularly the TPDF's own Katyusha rockets. The Ugandans and Libyans were surprised by the assault and could not muster an effective resistance, their coordination being further hampered by language barriers. Most of the Libyans subsequently began to retreat. The PLO militants and their associated Ugandan soldiers reacted better, and attempted to muster a defense. One group used a 7.5 cm anti-tank gun to fend off the leading Tanzanian tank, slightly damaging it and halting its advance for a short while. The majority of the PLO commanders, including Colonel Hamdan, Major Erekat, as well as Captain Ibrahim Awad were eventually wounded during the fighting. At his headquarters farther north, Ugandan Lieutenant Colonel Abdu Kisuule, commander of the Artillery & Signals Regiment, was awakened by the withdrawing Libyans. He ordered Major Aloysius Ndibowa to block the Kampala road to curtail the retreat. He then moved towards the front from Kayabwe, while Sule assumed command of several tanks and drove towards the battle. Near the Katonga Bridge, Tanzanian forces took up positions in a eucalyptus forest on the western side of the road. They ambushed the Ugandans and Libyans, inflicting heavy casualties. The fighting was bitter, and several tanks as well as APCs were destroyed in the area's groves and plantations. Dozens of jeeps evacuated the wounded to Kampala.