- Idi Amin Dada, Uganda (1971-1979)
Idi Amin Dada. Photo credit: ThoughtCo
Born in 1928 in Koboko, a Uganda Protectorate, the late-Idi Amin Dada was a Ugandan politician who ruled between 1971 and 1979. He joined the British Colonial Army in 1946 and took part in British actions against Shifta Warriors in Somalia and Mau Mau rebels in Kenya.
Nine years after Uganda’s independence in 1962, Amin led a bloody coup against Uganda’s first President, Milton Obote, and declared himself president.
Amin’s eight-year regime was characterized by serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture, ethnic persecution, political repression, and corruption.
It is estimated that close to 500,000 people were killed by Amin’s regime.
Bodies were often dumped in to River Nile to be washed away, and most of these victims were supporters of exiled President Obote and members of the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups.
Amin was deposed by Obote forces with the help of Tanzanian forces in 1978, after he attempted to annex the Kagera Region in Tanzania.
He fled to Libya in 1979 and later relocated to Saudi Arabia, where he settled until his death in July 2003.
Idi Amin was a polygamist with at least five wives and 43 children.
