Abdulatif Tiyua is a retired Ugandan military officer and former rebel leader.
22 Facts About Abdulatif Tiyua
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Abdulatif Tiyua served as a Uganda Army commander during the dictatorship of Idi Amin.
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Abdulatif Tiyua was freed in 1985, when Tito Okello overthrew Ugandan President Milton Obote.
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When Okello was defeated by Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army, Abdulatif Tiyua joined an insurgency in northern Uganda, and eventually rose to deputy commander of the West Nile Bank Front rebel group.
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Abdulatif Tiyua was born as a member of the Kakwa people in Maracha District, part of the West Nile Province of Uganda.
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Abdulatif Tiyua joined the Uganda Army in 1961, and was lieutenant by 1971.
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Abdulatif Tiyua considered it his duty to obey the Commander-in-Chief, and thus did not question Amin's dictatorship.
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Abdulatif Tiyua was sent with parts of the Gondo Battalion to the Tanzanian border to aid the Ugandan Invasion of Kagera, while Bananuka stayed behind in eastern Uganda.
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Abdulatif Tiyua subsequently stated that Bananuka had ordered the withdrawal, whereas the latter accused Abdulatif Tiyua of lying and being responsible for the retreat.
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Abdulatif Tiyua obeyed this order, although most of his troops deserted in the next days.
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Abdulatif Tiyua was imprisoned at the Maximum Security Prison of Luzira, and condemned to death without court procedure.
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Abdulatif Tiyua stated that he and other prisoners were mistreated and were not given adequate access to food, space, or medicine.
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Abdulatif Tiyua remained on the prison's death row until 1985, when Obote was overthrown by Tito Okello amid the Ugandan Bush War.
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The UPDA soon split, and Abdulatif Tiyua joined the Former Uganda National Army.
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Abdulatif Tiyua served as one of the group's leaders by 1990, serving alongside Isaac Lumago and Dusman Sabuni.
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Abdulatif Tiyua eventually became the deputy commander of the West Nile Bank Front, serving as its "chief administrator" under the overall leadership of Juma Oris.
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Abdulatif Tiyua later claimed that he regretted joining the anti-Museveni rebellion, retrospectively regarding it as "time and life lost" fighting a "futile war".
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Abdulatif Tiyua condemned the suspension, arguing that there were many more former rebels than the government admitted, and that the ex-combatants were not cheating the system.
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In subsequent years, Abdulatif Tiyua publicly urged the Ugandan government to pay WNBF veterans a regular pension to ensure that they would not resume their insurgency.
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The government eventually agreed to do so in 2018, whereupon Abdulatif Tiyua applauded its decision.
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Abdulatif Tiyua is a Muslim and has several children and grandchildren.
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Abdulatif Tiyua's daughters include professional sprinter Leni Shida and Animu Angupale, who served as Arua District Woman MP in the Seventh Parliament of Uganda.