Editing Idi Amin (section)

== Presidency ==
{{further|Second Republic of Uganda}}

=== Establishment of military rule ===
On 2 February 1971, one week after the coup, Amin declared himself President of Uganda, [[Commander-in-Chief]] of the Armed Forces, Uganda Army [[Chief of Staff]], and Chief of Air Staff. He suspended certain provisions of the [[Constitution of Uganda|Ugandan constitution]], and soon instituted an Advisory Defense Council composed of military officers with himself as the chairman. Amin placed [[military tribunal]]s above the system of [[civil law (legal system)|civil law]], appointed soldiers to top posts in government and [[government-owned corporation]]s, and informed the newly inducted civilian [[Cabinet (government)|cabinet ministers]] that they would be subject to [[military courtesy]].<ref name="britishcouncil" /><ref name="LOC_Rule_Under_Amin">{{Cite web |title=Country Studies: Uganda: Military Rule Under Amin |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ugtoc.html#ug0159 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716190740/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ugtoc.html#ug0159 |archive-date=16 July 2012 |access-date=8 August 2009 |website=Federal Research Division |publisher=United States Library of Congress}}</ref> Amin [[Rule by decree|ruled by decree]]; over the course of his rule he issued approximately 30 decrees.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mugabe |first=Faustin |date=26 May 2019 |title=12 executed as Amin introduces trial of civilians in military |url=https://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/12-executed-as-Amin-introduces-trial-civilians-military-courts/689844-5131640-onaekdz/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303230014/https://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/12-executed-as-Amin-introduces-trial-civilians-military-courts/689844-5131640-onaekdz/index.html |archive-date=3 March 2020 |access-date=3 March 2020 |website=Daily Monitor}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Krcmaric |first=Daniel |title=The Justice Dilemma: International Criminal Accountability, Mass Atrocities, and Civil Conflict |access-date=3 June 2021 |degree=PhD |publisher=Department of Political Science, Graduate School of Duke University |place=Durham, United States |language=English |pages=121–129 |chapter=Chapter 6: Case Studies |chapter-url=https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/9903/Krcmaric_duke_0066D_12863.pdf |via=DukeSpace (Duke University Libraries) |editor1-first=Alexander |editor1-last=Downes |editor2-first=Erik |editor2-last=Wibbels |editor3-first=Laia |editor3-last=Balcells |editor4-first=Peter |editor4-last=Feaver |year=2015}}</ref>

Amin renamed the presidential lodge in Kampala from Government House to "The Command Post". He disbanded the General Service Unit (GSU), an intelligence agency created by the previous government, and replaced it with the [[State Research Bureau (organisation)|State Research Bureau]] (SRB). SRB headquarters at the Kampala suburb of [[Nakasero]] became the scene of [[torture]] and [[capital punishment]] over the next few years.<ref name="LOC_Security">{{Cite web |title=Country Studies: Uganda: Post-Independence Security Services |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ugtoc.html#ug0159 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716190740/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ugtoc.html#ug0159 |archive-date=16 July 2012 |access-date=8 August 2009 |website=Federal Research Division |publisher=United States Library of Congress}}</ref> Other agencies used to persecute dissenters included the [[military police]] and the Public Safety Unit (PSU).<ref name="LOC_Security" />

Obote took refuge in Tanzania, having been offered sanctuary there by the Tanzanian President [[Julius Nyerere]]. Obote was soon joined by 20,000 Ugandan refugees fleeing Amin. The exiles attempted but failed to regain Uganda in 1972, through a poorly organised [[Coup d'état|coup]] attempt.<ref name="invasion">{{Cite magazine |date=13 November 1978 |title=An Idi-otic Invasion |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,946151,00.html |access-date=8 August 2009 |magazine=Time}}</ref>

=== Persecution of ethnic and political groups ===
[[File:Amin Dadas Torture chambers.jpg|thumb|Many victims of Amin's regime perished in torture chambers during his reign]]
Amin retaliated against the [[1972 invasion of Uganda|attempted invasion by Ugandan exiles in 1972]] by purging the [[Uganda Army (1971–1980)|Uganda Army]] of Obote supporters, predominantly those from the [[Acholi people|Acholi]] and [[Langi people|Lango]] ethnic groups.<ref name="TallJstor">{{Cite journal |last=Tall |first=Mamadou |date=Spring–Summer 1982 |title=Notes on the Civil and Political Strife in Uganda |journal=Issue: A Journal of Opinion |volume=12 |issue=1/2 |pages=41–44 |doi=10.2307/1166537 |jstor=1166537}}</ref> In July 1971, Lango and Acholi soldiers had been massacred in the [[Jinja, Uganda|Jinja]] and [[Mbarara]] [[barracks]].<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Lautze |first=Sue |title=Research on Violent Institutions in Unstable Environments: The livelihoods systems of Ugandan army soldiers and their families in a war zone |url=http://www.livesandlivelihoods.com/files/25826548.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710071214/http://www.livesandlivelihoods.com/files/25826548.pdf |archive-date=10 July 2007 |location=Hertford College, Oxford University |url-status=usurped}}</ref> By early 1972, some 5,000 Acholi and Lango soldiers, and at least twice as many civilians, had disappeared.<ref name="telegraph_obituary">{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=Charles |date=17 September 2003 |title=Obituary: Idi Amin |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/18/db1801.xml&page=1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012134036/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F08%2F18%2Fdb1801.xml&page=1 |archive-date=12 October 2007 |access-date=31 July 2018 |work=Daily Telegraph |location=London}}</ref> The victims soon came to include members of other [[ethnic group]]s, religious leaders, journalists, artists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, [[Student movements in Uganda|students]] and intellectuals, criminal suspects, and foreign nationals. In this atmosphere of violence, many other people were killed for criminal motives or simply at will. Bodies were often dumped into the River Nile.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Disappearances and Political Killings: Human Rights Crisis of the 1990s: A Manual for Action |url=http://web.amnesty.org/aidoc/aidoc_pdf.nsf/d45725da5fa95f1f80256a2b00642199/cde8ef35a67e99e3802569a70019299e/$FILE/a3307593.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128072410/http://web.amnesty.org/aidoc/aidoc_pdf.nsf/d45725da5fa95f1f80256a2b00642199/cde8ef35a67e99e3802569a70019299e/%24FILE/a3307593.pdf |archive-date=28 November 2007 |publisher=Amnesty International}}</ref>

The killings, motivated by ethnic, political, and financial factors, continued throughout Amin's eight years in control.<ref name=telegraph_obituary/> The exact number of people killed is unknown. The [[International Commission of Jurists]] estimated the death toll at no fewer than 80,000 and more likely around 300,000. An estimate compiled by exile organizations with the help of [[Amnesty International]] puts the number killed at 500,000.<ref name=Keatley/>

In his 1997 book ''State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin'', [[Henry Kyemba]] (who was a Ugandan minister for three years in Amin's cabinet) states that {{qi|Amin's bizarre behavior derives partly from his tribal background. Like many other warrior societies, the [[Kakwa people|Kakwa]], Amin's tribe, are known to have practiced blood rituals on slain enemies. These involve cutting a piece of flesh from the body to subdue the dead man's spirit or tasting the victim's blood to render the spirit harmless. Such rituals still exist among the Kakwa. Amin's practices do not stop at tasting blood: on several occasions he has boasted to me and others that he has eaten human flesh.}} (Kyemba 109–10)<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3445268M/A_state_of_blood |title=A state of blood: The inside story of Idi Amin |publisher=Fountain Publishers |year=1997 |isbn=9789970021321 |ol=3445268M}}</ref>

Among the most prominent people killed were [[Benedicto Kiwanuka]], a former prime minister and [[chief justice]]; [[Janani Luwum]], the [[Anglican Communion|Anglican]] [[archbishop]]; Joseph Mubiru, the former governor of [[Bank of Uganda|the central bank of Uganda]]; Frank Kalimuzo, the vice-chancellor of [[Makerere University]]; Byron Kawadwa, a prominent playwright; and two of Amin's own cabinet ministers, [[Erinayo Wilson Oryema]] and [[Charles Oboth Ofumbi]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=13 June 2007 |title=Special report: Who were Amin's victims? |url=http://www.monitor.co.ug/specialincludes/ugprsd/amin/articles/amin6.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613161724/http://www.monitor.co.ug/specialincludes/ugprsd/amin/articles/amin6.php |archive-date=13 June 2007 |work=The Daily Monitor}}</ref>

Amin recruited his followers from his own ethnic group, the Kakwas, along with South Sudanese, and Nubians. By 1977, these three groups formed 60 per cent of the 22 top generals and 75 per cent of the cabinet. Similarly, Muslims formed 80 per cent and 87.5 per cent of these groups even though they were only 5 percent of the population. This helps explain why Amin survived eight attempted coups.<ref>Stefan Lindemann, The ethnic politics of coup avoidance, page 20</ref> The Uganda Army grew from 10,000 to 25,000 by 1978. Amin's military was largely a mercenary force. Half the soldiers were South Sudanese and 26 per cent Congolese, with only 24 per cent being Ugandan, mostly Muslim and [[Kakwa people|Kakwa]].<ref>Andrew Mambo and Julian Schofield, "Military Diversion in the 1978 Uganda-Tanzania War", page 12</ref>

{{quote|quote=We are determined to make the ordinary Ugandan master of his own destiny and, above all, to see that he enjoys the wealth of his country. Our deliberate policy is to transfer the economic control of Uganda into the hands of Ugandans, for the first time in our country's history.|source=Idi Amin on the persecution of minorities<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jørgensen |first=Jan Jelmert |url=https://archive.org/details/ugandamodernhist00jrge/page/288 |title=Uganda: A Modern History |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-85664-643-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ugandamodernhist00jrge/page/288 288–290]}}</ref>}}
[[File:Aziaten die Oeganda uitgewezen zijn op Schiphol, groep Aziaten na aankomst, Bestanddeelnr 926-0503.jpg|thumb|Refugees of Uganda's Asian Community in the
[[Netherlands]], November 1972]]
In August 1972, Amin declared what he called an "economic war", a set of policies that included the expropriation of properties owned by Asians and Europeans. Uganda's 80,000 Asians were mostly from the [[Indian subcontinent]] and born in the country, their ancestors having come to Uganda in search of prosperity when India was still a British colony.<ref>{{Cite news |date=15 April 2007 |title=Idi Amin had targeted Indians in 70s |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Idi-Amin-had-targeted-Indians-in-70s/articleshow/1911455.cms |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324184819/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-04-15/india/27882308_1_devang-raval-museveni-indians |archive-date=24 March 2012 |work=[[The Times of India]]}}</ref> Many owned businesses, including large-scale enterprises, which formed the backbone of the Ugandan economy.<ref name="Luganda">{{Cite news |last=Luganda |first=Patrick |date=29 July 2003 |title=Amin's Economic War Left Uganda on Crutches |work=New Vision |location=Kampala}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite news |date=7 August 1972 |title=On this day: 7 August 1972: Asians given 90 days to leave Uganda |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7/newsid_2492000/2492333.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120719150554/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7/newsid_2492000/2492333.stm |archive-date=19 July 2012 |access-date=8 August 2009 |publisher=BBC}}</ref><ref name="Flight of the Asians">{{Cite magazine |date=11 September 1972 |title=Flight of the Asians |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906327,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110129090114/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906327,00.html |archive-date=29 January 2011 |access-date=8 August 2009 |magazine=Time}}</ref>

On 4 August 1972, Amin issued a decree [[expulsion of Asians from Uganda|ordering the expulsion]] of the 50,000 Asians who were British passport holders. This was later amended to include all 60,000 Asians who were not Ugandan citizens. Around 30,000 Ugandan Asians emigrated to the UK. Others went to Commonwealth countries such as [[Australia]], [[South Africa]], [[Canada]], and [[Fiji]], or to [[India]], [[Kenya]], [[Pakistan]], [[Sweden]], [[Tanzania]], and the [[United States]].<ref name="Luganda" /><ref name="auto" /><ref name="Flight of the Asians" /> Amin expropriated businesses and properties belonging to the Asians and the Europeans and handed them over to his supporters. Without the experienced owners and proprietors, businesses were mismanaged and many industries collapsed from lack of operational expertise and maintenance. This proved disastrous for the already declining Ugandan economy.<ref name=LOC_Rule_Under_Amin/> At the time, Asians accounted for 90% of the country's tax revenue; with their removal, Amin's administration lost a large chunk of government revenue. The economy all but collapsed.<ref>{{Cite news |title=50 years on from the arrival of the Ugandan Asians |url=https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/08/18/50-years-on-from-the-arrival-of-the-ugandan-asians |access-date=16 September 2022 |work=[[The Economist]] |issn=0013-0613}}</ref>

Idi Amin murdered an estimated 500 [[Yemenis|Yemeni]] [[Hadharem|Hadrami]] Arab merchants.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacobsen |first=Frode F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vzh6AgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Around+five+hundred+Hadramis+were+killed+in+Uganda+at+that+time%22&pg=PA17 |title=Hadrami Arabs in Present-day Indonesia: An Indonesia-oriented Group with an Arab Signature |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134018529 |edition=illustrated |series=Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series |page=17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Hadrami Arabs in Present-day Indonesia (Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series) &#91;PDF&#93; &#91;2fgmpjeslf00&#93; |url=https://vdoc.pub/documents/hadrami-arabs-in-present-day-indonesia-routledge-contemporary-southeast-asia-series-2fgmpjeslf00}}</ref>

In 1975, [[Emmanuel Bwayo Wakhweya]], Amin's finance minister and longest-serving cabinet member at the time, defected to [[London]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 July 1976 |title=Uganda Minister Named |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/21/archives/uganda-minister-named.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203161913/https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/21/archives/uganda-minister-named.html |archive-date=3 December 2018 |access-date=28 November 2018 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> This prominent defection helped [[Henry Kyemba]], Amin's health minister and a former official of the first Obote regime, [[defection|to defect]] in 1977 and resettle in the UK. Kyemba wrote and published ''A State of Blood'', the first insider exposé of Amin's rule.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/henry-kyemha/a-state-of-blood-the-inside-story-of-idi-amin/ |title=A State of Blood : The Inside Story of Idi Amin by Henry Kyemha {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |language=en-us |access-date=17 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118064836/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/henry-kyemha/a-state-of-blood-the-inside-story-of-idi-amin/ |archive-date=18 January 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

On 25 June 1976, the Defense Council declared Amin [[president for life]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 April 2021 |title=Magembe book tells how Amin was declared 'Life President of Uganda' |url=https://observer.ug/lifestyle/69226-magembe-book-tells-how-amin-was-declared-life-president-of-uganda |access-date=19 April 2021 |work=The Observer}}</ref>

=== International relations ===
{{See also|Foreign relations of Uganda}}

[[File:ASC Leiden - F. van der Kraaij Collection - 08 - 081 - The inauguration of William Richard Tolbert, 20th President of Liberia. Tolbert and Idi Amin - Ashmun street, Monrovia, Liberia, 1976.tiff|thumb|Amin during the inauguration of [[William Tolbert]], 20th [[president of Liberia]], in 1976]]

Initially, Amin was supported by Western powers such as [[Israel]], [[West Germany]], and, in particular, the United Kingdom. During the late 1960s, Obote's [[move to the left]], which included his [[Common Man's Charter]] and the [[nationalisation]] of 80 British companies, had made the West worried that he would pose a threat to Western capitalist interests in Africa and make Uganda an ally of the [[Soviet Union]]. Amin, who had served with the King's African Rifles and taken part in Britain's suppression of the [[Mau Mau uprising]] prior to Ugandan independence, was known by the British as {{qi|intensely loyal to Britain}}. This made him an obvious choice as Obote's successor. Although some have claimed that Amin was being groomed for power as early as 1966, the plotting by the British and other Western powers began in earnest in 1969, after Obote had begun his nationalization programme.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1979 |title=The Making of Idi Amin |url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/36/502.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924025120/http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/36/502.html |archive-date=24 September 2015 |access-date=23 August 2015 |publisher=New African}}</ref>

Throughout the first year of his presidency, Amin received key military and financial support from the United Kingdom and Israel. In July 1971 he visited both countries and asked for advanced military equipment, but the states refused to provide hardware unless the Ugandan government paid for it. Amin decided to seek foreign support elsewhere and in February 1972 he visited [[Libyan Arab Jamahiriya|Libya]]. Amin denounced [[Zionism]], and in return Libyan leader [[Muammar Gaddafi]] pledged Uganda an immediate $25 million loan to be followed by more lending from the Libyan–Ugandan Development Bank. Over the following months Amin successively removed Israeli military advisers from his government, expelled all other Israeli technicians, and finally broke diplomatic relations.{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|pp=10–11}} Gaddafi also mediated a resolution to long-standing Ugandan–Sudanese tensions, with Amin agreeing to stop backing [[Anyanya]] rebels in southern Sudan and instead recruit the former guerilla fighters into his army.{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|p=11}}

Following the expulsion of Ugandan Asians in 1972, most of whom were of Indian descent, India severed [[diplomatic relations]] with Uganda. The same year, as part of his "economic war", Amin broke diplomatic ties with the United Kingdom and nationalized all British-owned businesses.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baltrop |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55NPpA6EvyMC&pg=PA1 |title=A Biographical Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide: Portraits of Evil and Good |date=17 December 2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-38678-7 |location=online |pages=17 |access-date=27 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418173908/https://books.google.com/books?id=55NPpA6EvyMC&pg=PA1 |archive-date=18 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> The United Kingdom and Israel ceased all trade with Uganda, but this commercial gap was quickly filled by Libya, the United States, and the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|p=11}}

The Soviet Union under [[Leonid Brezhnev]] grew increasingly interested in Uganda as a strategic counterbalance to perceived [[China|Chinese]] influence in Tanzania and [[Western world|Western influence]] in Kenya. It dispatched a military mission to Uganda in November 1973. While it could not supply the financial level available from the Western powers, the Soviet Union opted to provide Amin with military hardware in exchange for his support.{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|pp=11–12}} The Soviet Union quickly became Amin's largest arms supplier, sending Uganda tanks, jets, artillery, missiles, and small arms. By 1975, it was estimated that the Soviets had provided Amin's government with $12 million in economic assistance and $48 million in arms. Amin also sent several thousand Ugandans to [[Eastern Bloc]] countries for military, intelligence, and technical training, especially [[Czechoslovakia]].{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|p=12}} [[East Germany]] was involved in the General Service Unit and the State Research Bureau, the two agencies that were most notorious for terror. During the Ugandan invasion of Tanzania in 1979, East Germany attempted to remove evidence of its involvement with these agencies.<ref name="gdr1" />

In December 1973, Amin launched a sarcastic 'Save Britain Fund' during the [[1973–1975 recession]] to {{qi|save and assist our former colonial masters from economic catastrophe}}, while offering emergency food supplies and urging Ugandans to donate.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sharpe |first=James |title=Foreign Exchange: The Complete Deal A Comprehensive Guide to the Theory and Practice of the Forex Market |date=2012 |publisher=Harriman House |page=17}}</ref>{{sfn|Leopold|2020|p=241}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Alwyn W. |title=Crisis? What Crisis? Britain in the 1970s |date=2009 |publisher=Aurum}}</ref> In 1974, he offered to host and mediate negotiations to end the [[The Troubles|conflict in Northern Ireland]], believing that Uganda's position as a former British colony made it apt to do so.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 January 2005 |title=Cabinet Papers: Dictator Amin offered to broker Ulster deal |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/cabinet-papers-dictator-amin-offered-to-broker-ulster-deal/28229409.html |work=[[The Belfast Telegraph]]}}</ref>

[[File:Idi Amin and Mobutu.jpeg|thumb|left|Amin visits the [[Zaire|Zairian]] dictator [[Mobutu Sese Seko|Mobutu]] during the [[Shaba I]] conflict in 1977]]

In June 1976, Amin allowed an [[Air France]] airliner from [[Tel Aviv]] to [[Paris]] hijacked by two members of the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations]] (PFLP-EO) and two members of the German [[Revolutionary Cells (German group)|Revolutionäre Zellen]] to land at Entebbe Airport. The hijackers were joined there by three more. Soon after, 156 non-Jewish hostages who did not hold Israeli passports were released and flown to safety, while 83 Jews and Israeli citizens, as well as 20 others who refused to abandon them (among whom were the captain and crew of the hijacked Air France jet), continued to be held hostage.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite news |date=7 July 1976 |title=On this day: 7 July 1976: British grandmother missing in Uganda |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/7/newsid_2496000/2496095.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121218065112/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/7/newsid_2496000/2496095.stm |archive-date=18 December 2012 |access-date=8 August 2009 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> In the subsequent Israeli rescue operation, codenamed Operation Thunderbolt (popularly known as [[Operation Entebbe]]), on the night of 3–4 July 1976, a group of Israeli commandos flew in from Israel and seized control of Entebbe Airport, freeing nearly all the hostages. Three hostages died during the operation and 10 were wounded; seven hijackers, about 45 Ugandan soldiers, and one Israeli soldier, [[Yoni Netanyahu]] (the commander of the unit), were killed. A fourth hostage, 75-year-old [[Murder of Dora Bloch|Dora Bloch]], an elderly Jewish Englishwoman who had been taken to [[Mulago Hospital]] in Kampala before the rescue operation, was subsequently murdered in reprisal. The incident further soured Uganda's international relations, leading the United Kingdom to close its [[High Commissioner|High Commission]] in Uganda.<ref name="auto1" /> In retaliation for Kenya's assistance in the raid, Amin also ordered the killing of hundreds of Kenyans living in Uganda.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 July 1976 |title=On this day: 4 July 1976: Israelis rescue Entebbe hostages |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200308093350/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm |archive-date=8 March 2020 |access-date=8 January 2017 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

Uganda under Amin embarked on a large military build-up, which raised concerns in Kenya. Early in June 1975, Kenyan officials impounded a large convoy of Soviet-made arms ''en route'' to Uganda at the port of [[Mombasa]]. Tension between Uganda and Kenya reached its climax in February 1976, when Amin announced that he would investigate the possibility that parts of southern Sudan and western and central Kenya, up to within {{convert|32|km|mi}} of [[Nairobi]], were historically a part of colonial Uganda. The [[Politics of Kenya|Kenyan Government]] responded with a stern statement that Kenya would not part with {{qi|a single inch of territory}}. Amin backed down after the Kenyan army deployed troops and [[armoured personnel carrier]]s along the Kenya–Uganda border.<ref>{{Cite news |date=17 August 2003 |title='Dada' always rubbed Kenya the wrong way |url=http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/17082003/News/Amin_News170820039.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206065709/http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/17082003/News/Amin_News170820039.html |archive-date=6 February 2008 |work=Sunday Nation}}</ref> Amin's relations with [[Rwanda]] were tense, and during his tenure he repeatedly jeopardized its economy by denying its commercial vehicles transit to Mombasa and made multiple threats to bomb [[Kigali]].{{sfn|Singh|2012|p=58}}

=== War with Tanzania and deposition ===
{{further|Uganda–Tanzania War}}
[[File:End of Idi Amin.jpg|thumb|299x299px|Amin in 1979 during the end of the war]]
In January 1977 Amin appointed General [[Mustafa Adrisi]] Vice President of Uganda.<ref name="bulletin">{{Cite news |date=January 1977 |title=Uganda : Vice-President Appointed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oncEAQAAIAAJ |work=Africa Research Bulletin |page=4284}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=26 January 1977 |title=Amin names No. 2 six years after coup |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/493270481/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216030016/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/493270481/ |archive-date=16 December 2019 |access-date=15 December 2019 |work=The Vancouver Sun |page=18 |agency=Reuters}}</ref> That year, a split in the Uganda Army developed between supporters of Amin and soldiers loyal to Adrisi, who held significant power in the government and wanted to purge foreigners, particularly Sudanese, from the military.{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|p=49}} The growing dissatisfaction in the Uganda Army was reflected by frequent coup attempts;{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|p=30}} Amin was even wounded during one of them, namely [[Operation Mafuta Mingi]] in June 1977.{{sfn|Seftel|2010|p=190}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mann |first=Roger |date=24 June 1977 |title=Amin Alive |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/06/24/amin-alive/cccb2d12-ff6f-4b85-b02b-d4c9a990f55a/ |access-date=13 May 2021 |work=The Washington Post}}</ref> By 1978, the number of Amin's supporters and close associates had shrunk significantly, and he faced increasing dissent from the populace within Uganda as the economy and infrastructure collapsed as a result of the years of neglect and abuse. After the killings of Bishop Luwum and ministers Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi in 1977, several of Amin's ministers defected or fled into exile.<ref name="bishop">{{Cite news |last=Mubangizi |first=Michael |date=16 February 2006 |editor-last=Tumusiime |editor-first=James |title=Not even an archbishop was spared |url=http://www.ugandaobserver.com/new/archives/2006arch/features/spec/feb/spec200602161.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012152659/http://ugandaobserver.com/new/archives/2006arch/features/spec/feb/spec200602161.php |archive-date=12 October 2007 |work=The Weekly Observer |publisher=Observer Media Ltd |location=Kampala, Uganda |language=English |editor2-last=Katunzi |editor2-first=Pius Muteekani |editor3-last=Bulime |editor3-first=Bob}}</ref> In early 1978, Adrisi was severely injured in a car accident and flown to Cairo for treatment. While he was there, Amin stripped him of his positions as Minister of Defense and Minister of Home Affairs and denounced him for retiring senior prison officials without his knowledge. Amin then proceeded to purge several high-ranking officials from his government{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|pp=49–50}} and took personal control of several ministerial portfolios. The shakeup caused political unrest and especially angered Adrisi's followers, who believed that the car accident was a failed assassination attempt.<ref name="crackdown">{{Cite news |date=1978 |title=Uganda : Idi Amin cracks down on ministers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FH_hAAAAMAAJ |work=To the Point International |page=26 |volume=5}}</ref>

In November 1978, troops loyal to Adrisi mutinied. Amin sent troops against the mutineers, some of whom had fled across the Tanzanian border.<ref name="LOC_Rule_Under_Amin" /> Fighting consequently broke out along that border, and the Uganda Army [[Invasion of Kagera|invaded Tanzanian territory]] under unclear circumstances.{{sfn|Roberts|2017|p=156}} According to several experts and politicians, Amin directly ordered the invasion in an attempt to distract the Ugandan military and public from the crisis at home.{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|p=52}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lubega |first=Henry |date=30 May 2014 |title=Amin's former top soldier reveals why TPDF won |url=http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/national/Why-Tanzania-defeated-Amin/1840392-2331220-olaa1lz/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181014165401/https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/national/Why-Tanzania-defeated-Amin/1840392-2331220-olaa1lz/index.html |archive-date=14 October 2018 |access-date=14 October 2018 |website=The Citizen}}</ref> Other accounts suggest, however, that Amin had lost control of parts of the Uganda Army, so Amin's sanction for the invasion was a ''post-facto'' action to save face regarding troops who had acted without his orders.{{sfn|Mambo|Schofield|2007|pp=312–313}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mugabe |first=Faustin |date=20 December 2015 |title=How bar fight sparked the 1979 Uganda – Tanzania war |url=https://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/How-bar-fight-sparked-the-1979-Uganda--Tanzania-war/689844-3002788-12ob9gk/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003072856/http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/How-bar-fight-sparked-the-1979-Uganda--Tanzania-war/689844-3002788-12ob9gk/index.html |archive-date=3 October 2018 |access-date=13 August 2019 |website=Daily Monitor}}</ref> In any case, Amin accused Tanzanian President [[Julius Nyerere]] of initiating the war against Uganda after the hostilities had erupted, and proclaimed the [[annexation]] of a section of [[Kagera Region|Kagera]] when the Ugandan invasion initially proved to be successful.<ref name="LOC_Rule_Under_Amin" /><ref name="invasion" /> However, as Tanzania began to prepare a counter-offensive, Amin reportedly realized his precarious situation, and attempted to defuse the conflict without losing face.{{sfn|Hooper|1999|p=42}} The Ugandan President publicly suggested that he and Nyerere participate in a boxing match which, in lieu of military action, would determine the outcome of the conflict.{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|p=67}}{{efn|Amin also proposed that [[Muhammad Ali]] could act as referee.{{sfn|Rice|2003|p=11}} Researcher Alicia C. Decker reasoned that the suggestion of a boxing match was supposed to {{qi|bolster [Amin's] masculinity}} and thereby showcase that he remained a strong leader in the face of mounting opposition to his regime. Accordingly, the proposal was mostly directed toward a Ugandan audience, and part of Amin's "performative" ruling style.{{sfn|Decker|2014|pp=152–153}}}} Nyerere ignored the message.{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|p=67}}

In January 1979, Nyerere mobilized the [[Tanzania People's Defence Force]] and counterattacked, joined by several groups of Ugandan exiles who had united as the [[Uganda National Liberation Army]] (UNLA). Amin's army retreated steadily, despite military help from Libya's Muammar Gaddafi<ref name="britannica" /> and the [[Palestine Liberation Organisation]] (PLO).{{sfn|Avirgan|Honey|1983|p=90}} The President reportedly made several trips abroad to other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq during the war, attempting to enlist more [[Foreign support of Uganda in the Uganda–Tanzania War|foreign support]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Darnton |first=John |date=7 March 1979 |title=Both Uganda and Tanzania Seek Arab Aid in Winning Their War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/07/archives/both-uganda-and-tanzania-seek-arab-aid-in-winning-their-war.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129172406/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/07/archives/both-uganda-and-tanzania-seek-arab-aid-in-winning-their-war.html |archive-date=29 January 2021 |access-date=19 December 2019 |work=The New York Times |page=3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Brittain |first=Victoria |date=24 April 1979 |title=Amin Reported To Seek Arms From Baghdad |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/04/24/amin-reported-to-seek-arms-from-baghdad/dc106b80-1b85-44b1-9e62-18d71efe87e6/ |access-date=16 March 2021 |work=The Washington Post}}</ref> He made few public appearances in the final months of his rule, but spoke frequently on radio and television.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 April 2016 |title=Amin's final public appearances |url=https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/magazines/people-power/amin-s-final-public-appearances-1647780 |access-date=19 April 2021 |website=Daily Monitor}}</ref> Following a major defeat in the [[Battle of Lukaya]], parts of the Uganda Army command reportedly urged Amin to step down. He angrily refused and declared: {{qi|If you don't want to fight, I'll do it myself.}} He consequently fired chief of staff [[Yusuf Gowon]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=John Daimon |date=6 April 1979 |title=Libyan Troops Supporting Amin Said to Flee Kampala, Leaving It Defenseless |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/06/archives/libyan-troops-supporting-amin-said-to-flee-kampalaleaving-it.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221122851/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/06/archives/libyan-troops-supporting-amin-said-to-flee-kampalaleaving-it.html |archive-date=21 December 2019 |access-date=21 December 2019 |work=The New York Times |page=9}}</ref>{{sfn|Rice|2003|p=12}} However, Amin was forced to flee the Ugandan capital by helicopter on 11 April 1979, when [[Fall of Kampala|Kampala was captured]].<ref name="britannica" /> After a short-lived attempt to rally some remnants of the Uganda Army in eastern Uganda{{sfn|Cooper|Fontanellaz|2015|p=37}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mugabe |first=Faustin |date=8 May 2016 |title=How Amin escaped from Kampala |url=http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/How-Amin-escaped-Kampala/689844-3193498-6w8fhl/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428160027/https://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/How-Amin-escaped-Kampala/689844-3193498-6w8fhl/index.html |archive-date=28 April 2019 |access-date=19 March 2019 |website=Daily Monitor}}</ref> which reportedly included Amin proclaiming the city of [[Jinja, Uganda|Jinja]] his country's new capital,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kapo |first=Nelson Bwire |date=14 April 2019 |editor-last=Baguma |editor-first=Rogers |title=Amin escapes from Kampala on day of overthrow, 'captures' power again from Soroti |url=https://nilepost.co.ug/2019/04/14/amin-escapes-from-kampala-on-day-of-overthrow-captures-power-again-from-soroti/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228202403/https://nilepost.co.ug/2019/04/14/amin-escapes-from-kampala-on-day-of-overthrow-captures-power-again-from-soroti/ |archive-date=28 February 2020 |access-date=5 March 2020 |website=Nile Post |publisher=Nile Post Uganda Ltd (Next Media Services) |place=Kampala, Uganda}}</ref> he fled into exile.<ref name="britannica" /> By the time of his removal from power, Amin had become deeply unpopular in Uganda. The symbols of his rule, his pictures, and buildings associated with him were subject to vandalism during and after the war.{{sfn|Venter|1979|p=85}}