Battle of Gayaza Hills
The Battle of Gayaza Hills or the Battle of Kajurungusi (Kiswahili: "Mapigano ya Kajurungusi") was a conflict of the Uganda–Tanzania War that took place in late February 1979 around the Gayaza Hills and Lake Nakivale in southern Uganda, near the town of Gayaza. Tanzanian troops attacked the Ugandan positions in the hills, and though they suffered heavy casualties in an ambush, they successfully captured them by the end of the day.

Colonel Idi Amin had seized power in a military coup in Uganda in 1971 and established a repressive dictatorship. Seven years later he attempted to invade Tanzania to the south. Ugandan troops occupied the Kagera Salient and subsequently murdered local civilians and destroyed property. The attack was eventually repulsed, and Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, unsatisfied with Amin's refusal to renounce his claims to Tanzanian territory and the international community's failure to strongly condemn the invasion, ordered his forces to advance into southern Uganda with the aim of capturing the towns of Masaka and Mbarara.

Between Mbarara and the Tanzanian border were the Gayaza Hills, which overlooked Lake Nakivale. Retreating Ugandan troops occupied them, and on 21 or 23 February 1979 the Tanzanian 206th Brigade attacked their positions. The fighting was fierce, and 24 Tanzanian soldiers were killed when Ugandan troops ambushed a battalion at Kajurungusi that was trying to pursue them. By the end of the day the Tanzanians outflanked the Ugandans and secured the hills. The Tanzanians captured Mbarara on 25 February. The ambush remained one of the few military operations well-executed by the Uganda Army during the entire war, while the casualties the Tanzanians suffered represented their largest loss in a single engagement.
Q7838
Kiswahili
Concept
Q202465
Uganda–Tanzania War
EVE
Q1036
Uganda
LOC
Q48231
Idi Amin
PER
Q309190
Kagera Salient
LOC
Q186525
Julius Nyerere
PER
Q956659
Masaka
LOC
Q731039
Mbarara
LOC
Q6382533
battalion
Concept
Q85847877
Uganda Army
UNK
Q85745841
Battle of Gayaza Hills
EVE
1979-02-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
February 1979
DATE
1971-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1971
DATE
1979-02-23T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
23 February 1979
DATE
+21^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
21
NUMBER
+24^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
24
NUMBER
+25^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
25
NUMBER
point in time
participant