West Nile campaign (October 1980)

On 6 October, one week before the offensive was to commence, about 500 UA rebels crossed the border and attacked Koboko. The 200-strong UNLA garrison was on parade at the time and was unarmed; the rebels massacred the soldiers.[6][1] One local civilian and the Makerere University's Refugee Law Project later reported that the insurgents also assaulted other towns such as Aringa, Yumbe, and Bondo around the same time.[19][37] Word of the attacks quickly spread to other UNLA garrisons in West Nile, who then fled to the Nile River, leaving the Uganda Army's advance mostly unopposed.[6][38] Many UNLA troops initially sought refuge at Bondo where one of the region's main barracks was located.[1] Eventually, five UA detachments attacked Bondo in force;[39] according to researchers Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz, this operation took place on 8 October.[22] The local UNLA troops were again caught by surprise during a morning parade; most were killed, and the rest fled in disarray.[40]

The rebels were welcomed by much of the local population,[6] although many civilians fled across the borders to Sudan and Zaire,[41] considering the UA militants little better than the pro-government forces.[42] On 8 or 9 October, Arua as well as its airport were reportedly attacked and conquered[22][41] by a combined force coming from Sudan and Zaire; after it fell, the civilians initially hailed the UA troops "liberators".[41] To the frustration of the locals, however, the invaders immediately started to loot coffee and transport it abroad.[42] This incident greatly damaged the insurgents' reputation among the civilians, and different rebel groups would later blame each other for the looting.[43] The insurgents also assaulted and burned down Moyo.[41] Kasozi stated that the local UNLA battalion had already fled at this point,[24] whereas the Makerere University's Refugee Law Project claimed that the town's UNLA garrison was overrun by UA forces.[37] Terego, Maracha, and Oraba were also captured by the insurgents.[44]

By mid-October, Ugandan government officials believed Koboko, Arua, Bondo, Moyo, and Lodonga to be controlled by the rebel troops.[35] The Minority Rights Group International[1] and Kasozi argued that there was a "popular uprising" in support of the invasion, and many settlements actually fell to revolting locals instead of the rebels.[24] As the insurgents knew that they could not hold the captured territory against a full UNLA counter-offensive, they mostly retreated back into Sudan after a few days[22] with a large amount of loot.[6] East of the Nile, the invasion caused fighting between armed Madi and Acholi civilians.[41] In response to the invasion, the UNLA commandeered vehicles in the capital Kampala, while Minister of Foreign Affairs Otema Allimadi handed a diplomatic note of protest to the ambassadors of Zaire and Sudan.[35] Military police personnel set up posts at all roads leading out of the West Nile Region to stop the fleeing UNLA soldiers.[45]

The UNLA began its counteroffensive on 12 October accompanied by TPDF troops,[6] advancing from Pakwach northward.[24] This force was backed by thousands[1] of Acholi and Langi militants and "volunteers",[24] including the Kitgum militia.[6][46] The latter group was an exclusively Acholi private army, regarded as sympathetic toward the UPC.[47] The counteroffensive only encountered significant resistance at Bondo, where six Tanzanians were killed during an eight-hour battle.[6] Lieutenant Colonel Elly Aseni was among the Uganda Army fighters who died in combat near Bondo.[48] Even though the rebels had mostly fled, the UNLA began brutal reprisals.[24] Considering the local population hostile, UNLA troops engaged in a campaign of destruction and looting across the West Nile, while Tanzanian officers tried in vain to restrain them.[6] Many settlements in the region were torched, women raped, grain storages destroyed, and civilians driven into huts which were set on fire.[24] Everything portable was carried away by the troops and militiamen.[2] UNLA soldiers leveled the town of Arua,[6] reportedly leaving only its Catholic Cathedral standing.[2] A TPDF soldier stated that when he and his comrades arrived at the town, it had been "wiped out" by UNLA soldiers and entirely depopulated, with women, children, and even dogs shot dead and left rotting in the streets. The destruction was only halted when Tanzanian troops intervened.[49]

The punitive expedition also targeted the territories inhabited by the Madi, namely Moyo and the areas east of the Nile. In Moyo, UNLA soldiers were reportedly seen walking around with the cut-off genitals of their victims at their belts, while east of the river militiamen and their families plundered and stole cattle.[24] The UNLA soldiers even crossed the border to Zaire in pursuit of the insurgents, clashing with UA guerrillas "near" Isiro. Instead of evicting the Ugandan intruders or stopping the clashes, the local Zairian Armed Forces (Forces Armées Zaïroises, FAZ) garrison fled westward.[50] However, UNLA's attempt to dislodge the UA remnants from the Sudanese border town of Kaya failed, allowing it to remain a "rebel stronghold" from where the insurgents could strike into Uganda and set up ambushes at the Kaya-Oraba road.[44]

The exact civilian death toll of the UNLA counter-attack remains unknown. Estimates ranged from 1,000[6] to 30,000.[24] Among the victims were Martin Okwera, Uganda Airlines branch manager for Arua, and his entire family of ten as well as relatives of cabinet members Anthony Ochaya and Moses Apiliga.[51] The brutality of the UNLA provoked the flight of over 250,000 refugees to Sudan and Zaire,[6] and inspired further unrest, as peasants and ex-soldiers took up arms to defend their lands from the government forces.[32] Amid the unrest, communication between the West Nile Region and the outside world largely collapsed.[41]

Following the October invasion, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Benjamin Mkapa flew to Kampala and met with the Military Commission, informing them of the Tanzanian government's "dismay" at the widespread destruction committed by UNLA in the West Nile Region.[2] The Ugandan government sent Ministers Apiliga and Anthony Butele to investigate the situation in West Nile. They toured the region from October to November 1980, and wrote a report that detailed the massive damage as well as the brutality of the UNLA, commenting that "most civilians are shot on sight". Even though this report was seconded by other government officials who visited the region in the next months, the Ugandan government arrested Uganda Times journalist Ben Bella Elakut for writing about the massacres.[52] One UNLA officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ojul, was arrested due to his involvement in the massacres around Moyo, but quickly released.[1] Researcher Gardener Thompson concluded that the UNLF government, "if not directly sponsored [the massacre], evidently condoned" it.[53]

The chaos in the West Nile Region severely disrupted the local preparations for the upcoming elections. Voter registration in the area had been scheduled for 6 October, but consequently became impossible, as did any meaningful elections. The UPC took advantage of the chaos: First, election officials accepted the UPC candidates and disqualified all candidates of other parties, most importantly the Democratic Party.[54] When they tried to register, DP candidates were denied the usual security measures by the authorities, and instead arrested and harassed by UNLA soldiers and militiamen based on suspicions that they were rebel supporters.[55] Their registrations were also shut down based on a lack of tax documents, despite these having been destroyed during the fighting.[54][55] Secondly, the lack of voter registration meant that there were no actual elections in West Nile, yet the UPC parliamentary candidates were declared the unopposed winners of the local constituencies.[54] Aided by these and other irregularities, the UPC won the December 1980 elections, and formed a government with Milton Obote as president.[56] The international Commonwealth Observer Groups sent to observe the election criticized the exclusion of DP candidates for the West Nile election, but did not mention the fighting and massacre at all, and overall praised the election's conduct.[57]

The results were strongly disputed by other candidates, leading to increasing strife. Several political factions claimed electoral fraud, and believed themselves to be proven correct when Obote immediately launched a campaign of political repression.[58] In 1981, President Obote expressed "pride" at the massacre in the West Nile Region, and warned the Baganda people that the same could happen to them.[53]

The October campaign in West Nile marked the de facto beginning of the Ugandan Bush War, a civil war which would last until 1985.[22] Following the disputed elections, the northern rebellion would be joined by insurgencies in southern Uganda, organized by anti-Obote opposition groups.[58]

The Uganda Army launched its next offensive just before the December 1980 elections. In one of their most daring actions, the rebels ambushed Obote as he was touring the West Nile region. They almost killed him and Tito Okello, a high-ranking UNLA commander. This time, the Uganda Army also held the areas it captured in West Nile, and set up a parallel government after retaking Koboko. After about one month of combat, the insurgents had captured most of West Nile, leaving only some towns under UNLA control.[22] However, many rebels focused more on looting the area and taking the plunder back to Zaire and Sudan than on fighting the UNLA.[32] In addition, political differences began to emerge among the rebels, and the Uganda Army fully fractured into two rival movements, known as the Former Uganda National Army (FUNA) and Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF).[59] By February 1981, the two groups were fighting each other.[60] Meanwhile, Acholi militiamen committed further massacres in the Madi-inhabited areas in February and March 1981, even as UNLA control eroded in the area.[1] When the last Tanzanian troops left Uganda in October 1981, the rebels made larger incursions into the West Nile District.[61] Heavy fighting continued and caused further damage to the area.[61][59] By September 1981, at least 140,000 Ugandan refugees had relocated to the Zairian border town of Aru, while 250,000 had fled to Sudan. Large sections of the West Nile Region were depopulated, and Arua remained in ruins.[50] The Ugandan government was not able to contain the West Nile insurgency until 1982.[61]

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