A few months later, the National Resistance Army (NRA) won the Bush War, whereupon Odwar fled into exile and helped to organize a rebellion against the new Ugandan government.

[2] In April 1979, Tanzanian forces and the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA), a coalition of armed rebel groups, overthrew the regime of Ugandan President Idi Amin.

Alongside Stephenson Ojukwu and Kenneth Banya, Odwar helped to deploy UNLA troops in eastern Acholiland and thus protected the local communities from the looting soldiers.

[7] He eventually rose to second-in-command of the Special Brigade, a UNLA unit which focused on destroying the National Resistance Army (NRA) rebel group.

[10] Afterward, Odwar continued to command a battalion during Ogole's repeated attempts to find and destroy the NRA's main unit, the Mobile Brigade.

[4][9] In June, the UNLA discovered and cornered the Mobile Brigade in the Singo area; Odwar and Joseph Kiyengo led their battalions to pursue the rebels.

On 21 June, however, the Mobile Brigade under his former friend Salim Saleh ambushed and heavily defeated the units of Odwar as well as Kiyengo in the Battle of Kembogo.

[12][14] Worried that the chaos among the military could result in a purge aimed at Acholi soldiers, a faction of UNLA officers launched a coup and overthrew President Obote in July 1985.

[17] However, the UNLA was left severely weakened by the coup and its aftermath, with many soldiers deserting, defecting to insurgent groups, or fleeing into exile.

[18] Initially, Okello's new regime reached out to the various rebel groups around the country, offering them participaction in the government in return for an end of their resistance.

As his warnings about these fears were ignored by Okello's government, Odwar and Major John Kilama started to plot a new coup, but this plan became obsolete when the NRA soon resumed its attacks.

Odwar became a founding member of the Uganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA), a rebel group formed by ex-UNLA commanders to overthrow the new NRM government during a rebellion from mid-1986.

[5][8] NRA Deputy Defense Minister Fred Rwigyema later claimed that the two sides actually agreed to a meeting for further peace talks, but this never took place due to Odwar's eventual death.