Idi Amin's Military Coup in Uganda
Idi Amin took power in Uganda in January 1971 while the president was abroad, and killed perhaps 300,000 people over the following eight years. He had been a sergeant in the King's African Rifles, a heavyweight boxing champion, and was one of two African officers in the Ugandan army at independence in 1962; Milton Obote promoted him rapidly and used him against the Buganda kingdom in 1966. By 1970 Obote was investigating the disappearance of army funds and Amin's dealings in gold and ivory from Congo, and the coup was launched while Obote was at a Commonwealth conference in Singapore. It was welcomed at first, in Uganda and in London, and Amin freed political prisoners and promised elections. The killing began within months, first of Acholi and Langi soldiers from Obote's home region, then of judges, academics, clergy, journalists and anyone reported to the State Research Bureau. In August 1972 he announced that God had told him in a dream to expel Uganda's Asian population, some 80,000 people, most of them Ugandan citizens, who were given ninety days to leave with fifty pounds each. Their businesses were handed to supporters who could not run them, and the economy collapsed. He declared himself Conqueror of the British Empire, offered to help Britain with its economic difficulties, and was chairman of the Organisation of African Unity in 1975. He invaded Tanzania in 1978, which finished him: Tanzanian troops and exiles took Kampala in April 1979. He died in Saudi Arabia in 2003.
- Year: 1971 CE
- Category: Military
