Battle of Gayaza Hills

Battle of Gayaza Hills
Part of the Uganda–Tanzania War
Gayaza Battle of Gayaza Hills (Uganda)
Date 21 or 23 February 1979 Location near Gayaza, Uganda Result Tanzanian victory Territorial changes Gayaza Hills captured by Tanzanian forces
Belligerents
Tanzania	Uganda
Commanders and leaders
Silas Mayunga N. D. Nshimani	Yorokamu Tizihwayo
Units involved
206th Brigade 20th Battalion	2nd Paratrooper Battalion
Strength
1 brigade	unknown
Casualties and losses
24 killed 2 tanks damaged	unknown

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 suffering heavy casualties in an ambush, they successfully captured the area 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.