Travel Guide Entebbe

Uganda's international airport (the only one in the country) is located in a very pleasant peninsular city on the shores of Lake Victoria and almost right on the equator. This point of entry into the country is well worth a stop and is probably a better introduction than the noisy capital, located 35 kilometres further north. It is already in the middle of nature, surrounded by birds and flowers. Similar to a residential suburb of Kampala, in this peaceful city of 75,000 souls, there are a few charming hotels that welcome travellers getting off or leaving the plane. Entebbe ("the siege", in Luganda) took off in 1893 when the colonial authorities turned it into a commercial and administrative centre; the city was the capital of the British protectorate from the end of the 19th century until independence. Today it is the preferred residence of the President of the Republic, Yoweri Museveni. Internationally, Entebbe owes its notoriety above all to the Israeli raid undertaken at the beginning of July 1976. A little reminder: after his break with the West and in particular the United Kingdom and Israel, his main allies, Amin Dada established strong relations with the Palestinian movements. It was therefore certainly not by chance that on 27 June 1976 terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked an Air France Airbus operating between Tel Aviv and Paris at Entebbe international airport. In exchange for the 256 passengers and crew members, the hostage-takers demanded that Israel release 53 of their prisoners. Proud to be in a strategic position before the international community, Amin Dada parada. He regularly came to show his support for the prisoners parked in the airport terminal while negotiating amicably with the hijackers. Israel pretended to want to negotiate, but on July 4 at midnight, a commando unit hit the airport. The six hijackers were shot down, along with eighty Ugandan soldiers, and almost all the hostages were freed (one captive died during the assault, while an elderly woman was hospitalised before being murdered). During the attack, the Israeli armed forces also destroyed eight Ugandan MiGs. This episode dealt a serious blow to Amin Dada's strike force and contributed greatly to his downfall