Abdulatif Tiyua is a retired Ugandan military officer and former rebel leader. He served as a Uganda Army (UA) commander during the dictatorship of Idi Amin. When Amin was overthrown in 1979 during the Uganda–Tanzania War, Tiyua was imprisoned by the new Ugandan government. He was freed in 1985, when Tito Okello overthrew Ugandan President Milton Obote. When Okello was defeated by Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army, Tiyua joined an insurgency in northern Uganda, and eventually rose to deputy commander of the West Nile Bank Front rebel group. Following years of warfare, Tiyua was captured by rebels allied to the Ugandan government in southern Sudan in 1997, and was again incarcerated. After being released in 2000, he became chairman of a veterans association and has lobbied for his former rebel comrades to end their insurgency.
A kitchen at the Luzira Maximum Security Prison before its renovation in the 2000s
The Uganda Army, also known as Uganda Armed Forces, served as the national armed forces of Uganda during the dictatorship of Idi Amin (1971–1979). It mostly collapsed during the Uganda–Tanzania War, but remnants continued to operate in exile from 1979. These pro-Amin rebel forces continued to be called the "Uganda Army" and maintained a semblance of cohesion until 1980, when they fully fractured into rival factions.
A Uganda Army OT-64 SKOT armoured personnel carrier during a military parade in Kampala in the late 1960s
Idi Amin (left), dressed in military fatigues, visiting Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1977
The Uganda Army's morale was connected to Idi Amin's ability to provide the troops with rewards such as scotch whisky (examples pictured).
Uganda Army OT-64 APCs, Ferret armoured cars, and jeeps in the late 1960s
