Operation Mafuta Mingi

BelligerentsUganda Uganda Liberation MovementCommanders and leadersIdi Amin (WIA)Patrick Kimumwe(POW)
Wilson Kimumwe
Anthony Bazalaki
Sylvester Mutumba (POW)Units involvedUganda Army loyalists
State Research Bureau

Uganda Army dissidents

• Malire Battalion elements
• UAAF elements

Strength Unknownc. 500

Operation Mafuta Mingi (Kiswahili for: "much cooking oil"; alternatively spelled "Mafutamingi") was a coup d'état attempt on 18 June 1977 which aimed at killing Ugandan PresidentIdi Amin and overthrowing his government. The operation was organized by the "Uganda Liberation Movement", a group consisting of dissident Uganda Army soldiers and pilots, backed by business owners in Kampala and Entebbe.

The coup plotters were able to amass a substantial force, and planned to eliminate Amin by first bombing his position using combat aircraft, followed by a ground-based attack. On the day of the coup, however, the President was warned and was able to prevent the aerial attack. He then escaped from Entebbe to Kampala, throwing the coup plotters off guard and breaking through a group of dissidents who tried to stop his convoy. Afterwards, the operation unravelled, as coup members were arrested or fled to Kenya. Amin stayed in power until 1979 when he was deposed as a result of the Uganda–Tanzania War.