The conflict would have blown into a war — Therealafrican
Uganda and Tanzania ceasefire
In 1971, Idi Amin had seized power after overthrowing Ugandan President Milton Obote, and would later adopt a dictatorial style of leadership that made him be seen by many as a monster. Several key figures who lost out during the coup found sanctuary in Tanzania then under President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.
On September 17, 1972, these Ugandan exiles living in Tanzania attempted to take back Uganda in a deadly mission. On that day, around 77 trucks, carrying armed Ugandans, crossed from Tanzania into the towns of Kyotera, Kakuto and Kalisizo in an attempt to overtake them. The raid was halted after Amin deployed his air force to bomb those towns.
Many of the exiles were captured and slaughtered within 72 hours and though Amin had retaken the towns from the about 1,500 invaders, his Air Force was still bombing Bukoba in Tanzania and this compelled the Tanzanian government to retaliate.
Following diplomatic solutions led by the OAU and interventions from other African countries to prevent the conflict from blowing into a full-scale war, Tanzania and Uganda, by October 19, had agreed to end hostilities and to pull all forces back from their common border. This pledge was made possible in a Somali-mediated peace agreement signed in Mogadishu.
Despite the force of attacks from Amin’s forces, the Tanzanian foreign minister John Malecela had at a point requested Anwar Sadat, then Egyptian president to send a diplomatic delegation to Uganda to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
