Battle of Masaka 1979
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 23 February 1979 – 24 February 1979 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1979 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | Post-1945 (1946 onwards) | derived from year |
| Location | Uganda | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Uganda–Tanzania War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Tanzania, Uganda, Uganda National Liberation Front | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -0.3411, 31.7361 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Masaka (Kiswahili: Mapigano ya Masaka) was a battle of the Uganda–Tanzania War that took place on 23 and 24 February 1979 in the town of Masaka, Uganda. Following artillery bombardment, most of the Ugandan government forces fled and Tanzanian and Ugandan rebel forces captured the town.
Colonel Idi Amin had seized power in a military coup in Uganda in 1971 and established a brutal dictatorship. Seven years later he attempted to invade Tanzania to the south. Ugandan troops occupied the Kagera Salient and subsequently murdered local civilians and destroyed property. The attack was eventually repulsed, and Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, unsatisfied with Amin's refusal to renounce his claims to Tanzanian territory and the international community's failure to strongly condemn the invasion, ordered his forces to advance into southern Uganda with the aim of capturing the towns of Masaka and Mbarara.
After careful planning, the Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF) crossed the border in January 1979 and moved steadily northward. Masaka was garrisoned by several thousand Ugandan troops, including the Suicide Battalion. Their performance was undermined by low morale and internal divisions.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Masaka (revision 1370449231), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Lukaya 1979 · 26 km
- Battle of Sembabule 1979 · 42 km
- Battle of Kabamba · 62 km
- Battle of Mutukula 1979 · 81 km
- Battle of Birembo · 91 km
- Battle of Bukoba 1915 · 111 km
Other battles of the Uganda–Tanzania War
- Battle of Lukaya 1979
- Battle of Mutukula 1979
All 3 battles of the Uganda–Tanzania War →
Browse more: battles in Uganda · Africa · Post-1945 battles