Ugandan Bush War (aka Luwero War) | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Uganda National Liberation Army |
National Resistance Army Supported by: Libya |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Tito Okello David Oyite-Ojok Smith Opon Acak Bazilio Olara-Okello |
Yoweri Museveni Salim Saleh Steven Kashaka Joram Muguma Pecos Kuteesa Fred Rwigyema |
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
100,000–500,000 |
The Ugandan Bush War (also known as the Luwero War, the Ugandan civil war or the Resistance War) refers to the guerrilla war waged between 1981 and 1986 in Uganda by the National Resistance Army (NRA) under the leadership of Yoweri Museveni against the government of Milton Obote, and later that of Tito Okello.
Museveni and his supporters retreated to the southwest of the country and formed the Popular Resistance Army (PRA). The PRA later merged with former president Lule's group, the Uganda Freedom Fighters (UFF), to create the National Resistance Army (NRA) and its political wing, the National Resistance Movement (NRM). Concurrently, two other rebel groups, the Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF) and Former Uganda National Army (FUNA), formed in West Nile from the remnants of Amin's supporters and fought the UNLA in West Nile.Paul Kagame and Rwandan exiles in Uganda (who later formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front), fought in this war for Museveni's NRA. Kagame, trained in Tanzania as a spy, became Museveni's counter-intelligence chief.
NRA's bush war began with an attack on an army installation in the central Mubende District on 6 February 1981. Museveni, who had guerrilla war experience with the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in Mozambique, and his own Front for National Salvation (FRONASA) formed in Tanzania to fight Idi Amin, campaigned in rural areas hostile to Obote's government, especially central and western Buganda and in the regions of Ankole and Bunyoro in western Uganda.