By dawn on April 11, Tanzanian troops had cut off all routes out of Kampala, including the road to Jinja, and began eliminating remaining pockets of resistance.

Some UNLF forces conducted revenge killings against suspected collaborators with the Amin regime, while others attacked Kakwa and Nubians, both ethnic groups that had benefited from the dictatorship.

In 1971, Idi Amin launched a military coup that overthrew the President of Uganda, Milton Obote, precipitating a deterioration of relations with neighbouring Tanzania.

[6] After initial advances into Ugandan territory, Major General David Msuguri was appointed commander of the Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF)'s 20th Division and ordered to push further into the country.

[12] Shortly thereafter President Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, an ally of Amin, attempted to stem the advance by sending an ultimatum to Nyerere, demanding that he withdraw his forces in 24 hours or face the opposition of Libyan troops (which were already operating in Uganda).

[23] Tanzanian commanders had originally assumed that Amin would station the bulk of his forces in the capital, and their initial plans called for a direct attack on the city.

Nyerere requested that his commanders leave the eastern road from the city leading to Jinja clear so that Libyan troops and foreign diplomats could evacuate.

[32] According to the Africa Research Bulletin, there were approximately 1,000 soldiers garrisoning the city,[33] while journalist John Darnton reported on 9 April an estimate that Amin had 2,000 to 3,000 men just south of the capital as "a last line of defence".

[17] In addition to Ugandan and Libyan soldiers, a small number of allied Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) militants belonging to Fatah took up positions in the outskirts of Kampala.

[49] Fire was exchanged for 10 minutes until the source of the opposition, a limousine occupied by five Ugandan soldiers armed with semi-automatic weapons, emerged from cover and drove towards the Tanzanian column.

[55] By dawn of 11 April Tanzanian troops had cut off all routes leaving Kampala, including the road to Jinja, and began eliminating the remaining pockets of resistance.

[40] Some UNLF forces conducted revenge killings against suspected collaborators with the Amin regime, while others attacked Kakwa and Nubians, both ethnic groups that had benefited from the dictatorship.

[57] At 04:00 the East German ambassador, Gottfried Lessing, and his wife left their residence in a small white car with another vehicle following in an attempt to escape the city.

[69] Msuya asserted that Ojok had initially refused to make any declaration, saying "If our friends in Moshi and Dar es Salaam hear me reading this, they will think I have taken over.

His declaration was straightforward; he stated that Amin's government was deposed and that Kampala was under the control of the UNLF, and appealed to residents to remain calm and for Ugandan soldiers to surrender.

[78] Lieutenant Colonel Juma Butabika, one of Amin's top commanders, was killed in a firefight with soldiers of the 205th and 208th Brigades in the Bwaise–Kawempe area as they moved in from Mityana to secure the northern section of the city.

[20][f] Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Kisule, the commander of an artillery unit based in Masindi, surrendered in the capital,[79] as did the Uganda Army's chief medical officer, Brigadier G. D.

[77] In what most observers described as the boldest incident of looting in the entire war, the six-foot-thick door to the vault of the Barclays Bank of Uganda main branch building was breached with plastic explosives and 2.25 million shillings were stolen.

[88] On 12 April, Amin delivered a rambling radio broadcast via a mobile transmitter in which he denounced Ojok's speech and declared that his forces still held Kampala.

[1] Large stocks of Libyan munitions were seized,[102] as were significant caches of Ugandan weapons imported from the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, Israel, and Spain.

Social tensions between the former exiles and the rest of Kampala's population quickly grew, as the politicians flaunted their role as "liberators" regardless of their involvement in the war, and began to live in style while the common citizens still suffered from a lack of basic necessities.

[106] Msuya was tasked with running errands on behalf of the UNLF ministers, while Walden's 207th Brigade was ordered to assume occupation duties throughout the entirety of Kampala.

[91] Tanzanian soldiers subsequently occupied the Kampala International Hotel, looting it and tossing thousands of Qurans (which had been given by Libya to Uganda) stored in it from its balconies.

[108] Disagreement between Ojok and another UNLF commander, Yoweri Museveni, over the control of surrendered Uganda Army soldiers in Kampala led to a leadership dispute.

Many northern soldiers, feeling the conflict was primarily a southern affair, had little motivation to continue fighting away from their home territories, while some men began accusing the units which had fought in the south of performing poorly and losing the war.

[91] Though a decree was issued that prohibiting looting,[119] the authorities did not pursue legal action against the looters, and an appeal for the return of state property was modestly successful.

[122] The overthrow of a sovereign head of state by a foreign military had never occurred in modern Africa and had been strongly discouraged by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

[123] At an OAU conference in July 1979, President Gaafar Nimeiry of Sudan said that the war had set a "serious precedent" and noted that the organisation's charter "prohibits interference in other people's internal affairs and invasion of their territory by armed force.

Nyerere accused the OAU of shielding black African leaders from criticism, noting that Amin's regime had killed more people than the white minority governments in southern Africa.

[126] Footage from the battle was included in the 1980 Tanzania Film Company and Audio Visual Institute colour documentary chronicling the war, Vita vya Kagera.