SUMMARY
UPDA (Ugandan People’s Democratic Army) was a Ugandan rebel group that was involved in the conflict against the regime of Yoweri Museveni in the late 1980s. The origin of the group was tied to the ousting of the military junta under Tito Okello, by Museveni’s NRA in January 1986. Political elites manipulating ethnic and regional differences in order to legitimate their claim to power has been an overall theme throughout Uganda’s history as an independent state. This pattern was just as evident in the national army, which reflected the ethnicity or regional base of the current regime; Tito Okello was from the Acholi ethnic group, as were most of his defeated national army. When NRA captured Kampala, the defeated national army fled towards its home region, Acholiland, in the northern-most part of the country. NRA was based among ethnic groups that had suffered under Acholi-dominated armies for many years, and as the new national army pursued the former one north, the Acholi population suffered as historical scores were settled. It was in this context that UPDA was formed; the former government soldiers were forced to cross the border into Sudan, where they met up with Acholi politicians as well as supporters of former presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin, setting up UPDA in March 1986. The group stated that it was fighting for a return to elected government and for the implementation of the so-called Nairobi peace accord, which had been signed by the Okello junta and NRA in December 1985, before the latter made a final push and seized power.
UPDA’s overall leader was Bazilio Olara Okello, chief of the armed forces under the regime of Tito Okello. Odong Latek was the group’s Military Commander from its founding and until May 1988. He had previously been a platoon commander in the 1970s rebel group Kikosi Maalum, Chief of Operations and Training in Milton Obote’s armed forces and Brigadier in Gulu under the Okello regime. In May 1988, in the context of peace talks with the army, Latek was replaced by Angelo Okello, previously commander of UPDA’s ‘Division One’ based in Gulu district. While the group was, at least nominally, attached to an external, political wing, the UPDM (Uganda People’s Democratic Movement, led by Eric Otema Allimadi, the link between the two was tenuous at best. The military wing directed the military campaign without consulting the political wing in exile. Since UPDM clearly wielded no influence over the UPDA, the general UCDP coding rule to always list the political wing of a movement is not applied in this particular case.
As indicated earlier, UPDA had its ethnic base among the Acholi people. Initially, the group enjoyed substantial support among the local population. The rebels were able to capitalize on popular grievances, such as a widespread fear of reprisals for human rights abuses carried out by the Acholi-dominated former national army, and of political and economic marginalization, as Museveni’s ascent to power was perceived as the people of western Uganda gaining power at the expense of the Acholi. The group’s support base was clearly reflected in its area of operation; after its formation in Sudan, UPDA’s fighters crossed into northern Uganda in August 1986, subsequently splitting into small groups, loosely organized in four brigades. Two of these brigades were based in Kitgum district in the eastern part of Acholiland, and two in Gulu district, in the westerns part of Ugandan Acholiland (the area traditionally inhabited by the Acholi stretches across the border into Magwi county in South Sudan). By the end of 1986 – at the height of the group’s armed struggle – UPDA controlled much of the countryside, but had proved unable to retake towns from the army. At the outset, the UPDA was made up of between 13 000 and 15 000 fighters, but this figure dwindled quickly due to heavy battlefield losses and large-scale defections, and by early 1988, only roughly 2500 remained.
During the late 1980s, Acholiland was in a state of chaos. Aside from UPDA, there were three other substantial rebel organizations active in the region, HSM, Lord’s Army and UHSA (Uganda Holy Salvation Army, later renamed LRA). Even though all these groups were based among the Acholi population and had a common enemy, there was no cooperation between them. Instead, their relationships were highly conflictual, with internecine fighting serving to weaken in particular UPDA. In addition to major losses incurred in the fighting, in particular HSM, which was a prophetic movement with large popular support, was able to attract large numbers of UPDA fighters, who defected and joined the growing HSM. While no support or cooperation was thus forthcoming among the rebel groups in Acholiland, UPDA did receive some assistance in its struggle against the Ugandan government. When the defeated national army crossed into Sudan in 1986, the former soldiers were granted permission to set up camp close to the border. However, this support proved short-loved and after UPDA’s August 1986 invasion of Acholiland, they were not allowed to cross back into Sudan.
In June 1988, the Gulu Peace Accords were signed by UPDA and the government, stipulating for example the integration of some 2000 UPDA into the national army. While both the external political wing and a hard-core faction of the military wing under Odong Latek rejected the agreement, the top leadership and the bulk of the group’s fighters accepted it, whereby it meant the end of the armed struggle for UPDA. As for the faction under Odong Latek, it opted to join what would later be called LRA.
