Word: simba
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Tripoli for a possible counterattack against the new Ugandan government and its Tanzanian allies. Though Amin's chances of succeeding in such an effort were practically nil, at least some members of his shattered army professed to be eagerly awaiting his return. Claimed a soldier from the elite Simba Battalion, once the bulwark of Amin's forces, speaking to a Western newsman near the Kenya border: "His Excellency is on the radio every morning telling us what to do. He is trying to bring war machinery from outside. He says to lie low and wait. He says...
Innocent civilians have not been the only victims. At Busia, a village that straddles Uganda's border with Kenya, 500 Simba troops were preparing for what their commander, one of Amin's nephews, called a "noble, bloody" last stand against an advancing column of Tanzanians. The screams of Simbas who were being garroted by their comrades for counseling surrender or trying to escape across the border could clearly be heard by passers-by on the town's unpaved main street...
...shot in the back. One victim, a Makerere University warden named Theresa Nanziri, was eight months pregnant when she was brought to the SRB. After a day of interrogation, claims Kisuule-Minge, she and her husband were taken down to the reception area. A Nubian private known as Simba stepped forward and plunged a knife into her stomach. As she screamed and fell back, he slashed her open while her terrified husband ran in panic for the door. He was shot...
...rapid collapse of Amin's rule began a week ago when long-range Tanzanian artillery pounded Mbarara and Masaka, garrison towns held by what were supposed to be Amin's elite forces, the Suicide Regiment and the Simba (Lion) Battalion. These troops not only surrendered; some even joined the anti-Amin forces. Late last week Tanzanian units and various anti-Amin groups began pushing north of Masaka toward Kampala, 80 miles away. But a Ugandan tank force managed to retake the garrison town of Tororo, near the Kenyan border, which had briefly fallen to the rebels...
Amin's invasion of Tanzania, however, was apparently triggered by internal problems-specifically, a mutiny of his troops. The crack Simba (Lion) Battalion rebelled in protest against the country's sagging economy. In early October, dissident troops ambushed Amin at the presidential lodge in Kampala, but he escaped with his family in a helicopter. Efforts by loyalist troops to smash the rebellion, which had its strongest support in southern Uganda, spilled over into Tanzania, where anti-Amin exiles joined the fighting. Big Daddy's attempt to disguise the true nature of these clashes, and to divert attention...