The Tanzanian-Ugandan War: Were the Just War Principles, Islamic Just War Tradition or the Catholic Social Ethics followed?

Abstract

The Tanzanian-Ugandan war is one of those rare phenomena in world history. It was the first time in Africa that an African government invaded another, overthrew its leadership and installed a friendly alternative. Although some countries condemned the Tanzanian invasion, with others even coming to fight on the side of the Ugandan government (Libya), the rest of the world, including the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations, largely remained mute. The Tanzanian-Ugandan war also remains one of the few classical wars to have ever taken place in Africa. The war was also unique in that the principle protagonists,Nyerere and Amin, held opposite ideological and religious beliefs. On one hand, Nyerere was a professed socialist and a staunch Catholic; Amin on the other hand, claimed capitalism as his ideology and was a strong devotee of Islam. During his reign, Uganda joined the Organisation of Islamic States, and Friday became a non-working day. Thus, for these reasons, in a continent dominated by ethnic, inter-religious and other forms of civil strife, the inter-country war between Tanzania and Uganda, has attracted heated debate as to which principle of war was applied: was it the just war principle, the Islamic War Tradition or the Catholic Social Teaching?