Uganda Muslim Liberation Army

The Uganda Muslim Liberation Army (abbreviated UMLA) was a Muslim rebel group in Uganda. Most of its fighters were from the Muslim minority of Baganda, whilst others were non-Baganda Muslims.[1] The group was formed in response to the Museveni government's alleged mistreatment of Muslims in Buganda.[2]

Uganda Muslim Liberation Army
Dates of operation1995 (1995)–1996 (1996)
HeadquartersBuganda
Active regionsSudan–Uganda border,
Uganda–Zaire border
IdeologyMuslim interests in Buganda
Allies Sudan (alleged by Uganda)
Opponents Uganda

History

The UMLA formally declared war on Yoweri Museveni's Ugandan government in January 1995.[3] In February 1995, the group launched its first military operations near Lake Albert, which failed and resulted in their retreat to Zaire (present-day the Democratic Republic of Congo).[1]

Museveni denounced the rebels as Islamic fundamentalists, whose sole purpose was to destabilize the Great Lakes Region as "agents of [Sudan's] NIF government". The self-proclaimed purpose of the UMLA was to topple Museveni's government and stop the alleged mistreatment of Muslims in Buganda by them.[2] The UMLA claimed that Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA) had committed war crimes and massacres against Muslims during the Ugandan Bush War, a claim which Museveni denies.[3]

The UMLA merged with the Allied Democratic Movement, remnants of the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU) and followers of the Islamic sect Tablighi Jamaat to form the Allied Democratic Forces in 1996, allegedly with the assistance of the Sudanese government.[4] Despite not waging a significant insurgency, the group was a primary focus of bitter relations between the Sudanese and Ugandan governments.[2]

References
  1. Heo, Uk; Jr, Karl DeRouen (2007). Civil Wars of the World: Major Conflicts Since World War II. ABC-CLIO. pp. 797, 798. ISBN 9781851099191. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  2. Adelman, Howard; Rao, Govind C. (2004). War and Peace in Zaire-Congo: Analyzing and Evaluating Intervention, 1996-1997. Africa World Press. p. 46. ISBN 9781592211319. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  3. Prunier, Gerard (2008). Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe. Oxford University Press. p. 84. ISBN 9780199705832. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  4. Prunier, 87. See Kirsten Alnaes, "Songs of the Rwenzururu Rebellion," in P.H. Gulliver, ed., Tradition and Transition in East Africa (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969)
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