As tensions escalated between Uganda and Tanzania, then Libyan President Col. Muammar Gaddafi sent soldiers to Uganda. Most of these soldiers were deployed in Entebbe, Kawuku, Kisubi and neighbouring areas.
Amin was toppled 5 months after the start of the Kagera war when his attack drew a response by a combined force of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) and other fighting groups comprising Ugandans who were living in exile.
Though the number of Libyan soldiers who died remains unknown to date, it is estimated that over 400 died in the battles of Lukaya and Entebbe. Gaddafi visited Uganda in July 2010 and paid tribute to the fallen Libyan soldiers.
He and President Yoweri Museveni were expected to commission a monument for the Libyan soldiers but for some undisclosed diplomatic reasons, Gadaffi instead headed to Entebbe airport for an unceremonious exit out of Uganda. A year later in 2011, Gaddafi was toppled and the monument, though incomplete, still stands at River Katonga. Museveni would later accuse Gadaffi of arrogancy and being a power maniac, who wanted to be ‘King of Africa’ by all means.
Our reporter retraced the course of the war to some of the places in Entebbe and town councils of Kajjansi and Katabi where people including Libyan soldiers were killed and buried. Most of the witnesses say the corpses were hurriedly buried in gardens, in road reserves or dumped in forests, swamps and Lake Victoria because some had started decomposing.
According to Hajji Muhamad Bbosa, a resident of Nakawuka, many Libyan soldiers died because their areas of deployment were well known and they were not familiar with Ugandan territory.
Bossa says when the TPDF troops captured Mutukula, Masaka and Lukaya, they advanced towards Kampala and Entebbe via the 34-kilometre Mpigi-Kasanje-Nakawuka-Kisubi road. Bossa, a farmer, says the troops invaded Nakawuka, killed mainly Ugandan army and Libyan soldiers who had been deployed in the area and launched rockets targeting key installations in Entebbe from some of the hills where there is a clear view of the peninsular.
“They placed rocket launchers on the hills and would fire from around 10 am to 3 pm non-stop. But some of these rockets exploded in Nakawuka and injured or killed civilians and many soldiers,” he says.
He says many Libyan soldiers were killed in Nakawuka and neighbouring areas of Ssisa, Wamala and their bodies were dumped in forests by Tanzanian troops.
Aged 32 years at the time, Bossa says the Tanzanian troops also conducted foot patrols in Nakawuka and killed several soldiers and suspicious nationals. Bossa recalls that the troops killed a Ugandan in front of his home in Nakawuka-Dyangu village, at around 8 am in early April.
“The soldiers ordered us to carry the body from the roadside and bury it immediately…we dug a pit less than 3 feet and buried the man in the banana plantations. The pit was obviously not deep enough so we are not sure if dogs did not dig out the body later on,” said Bossa.
The Public Health Act, 1935 ( Cremations and Burial Rules) Statutory Instrument 281-10 provides that a corpse should be buried in a grave that is at least 6 feet deep. Alfred Mugoya, in his mid-60s, says he was in Kawuku during the war.
“Close to 700 Libyan soldiers had been deployed in Ssisa, Kawuku, Kisubi Namulanda and neighbouring areas of Entebbe to safeguard State House and the airport, and many of these soldiers were killed and buried along Kampala-Entebbe road, particularly in the road reserves and a few metres from the current Cabana restaurant in Kawuku,” Mugoya says.
Mugoya says Libyan soldiers were killed or captured by Tanzanian soldiers who had taken over key areas such as Nakawuka-Kisubi road junction and Namulanda to block combatants. Mugoya was working as an electrician at Entebbe airport in the late 1970s.
Mugoya agrees with Bossa that most of the people killed during the war especially the Libyan soldiers were buried in shallow graves and some of their bodies were exhumed by dogs.
Jovan Mutongole, 66, hid inside his father’s workshop during heavy gunfire in Kisubi. The workshop, called Expert Tailors and Outfitters was on the roadside. Mutongole refused to leave the workshop to keep watch over the machines and other equipment. The workshop however was finally closed in 2013, four years after Mutongole’s father died.
He says over 100 Libyan soldiers were deployed in Kawuku and that “many were killed and buried in mass graves on the roadside and military detaches.”
In Kitubulu and Bugonga, residents say some civilians buried the dead Libyan soldiers and other people in shallow graves while others were dumped into Lake Victoria because many were killed along the roadside and landing sites.
Betty Ddungu Namatta, over 65 years now, says she got scared during the ‘Battle of Entebbe’ because Libyan soldiers were housed near her home in Bugonga.
In the last days of Amin’s regime, Esther Nakityo, now working at a stone quarry says the Tanzanian troops moved within the villages in Nakawuka. The 69-year-old lauds the Tanzanian and Ugandan soldiers for always forewarning civilians to keep away before launching rockets.
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