Lesothan Civil War (1983: Doomsday)

The Lesothan Civil War was a roughly decade long civil war in the African nation of Lesotho. Before the war, it had been one of the strongest nations in Africa, though quite isolationist. Following disputes between the government, which had rigged elections for several years, and the democratic opposition, the military took advantage of a breakdown in negotiations to launch a coup d'etat, swiftly seizing much of the nation. Following the coup, the Democratic Alliance declared war on both the government and the military. After several months of fighting, the government succeeded in controlling Maseru but lost control of effectively the entire rest of the nation. The DA (who controlled the lowlands) fought with the military forces, which mostly controlled the highlands.

The war ended after nine years, after an alliance between the DA and the Government managed to force the military out of their last stronghold, in Ficksburg.

Background
After the Maseru Revolution of 1988 through out the military and restored democracy to Lesotho, the first elections were held, and were to be held once every three years, starting in 1988. The first elections were won by Tom Thabane of the Consolidationist Party, which was mostly controlled by him, over the Liberal Democrats and the Foundationist Party. However, in the next elections - in 1991 and 1994 - many accused the government of rigging the elections, especially after the Liberal Democrats were barred for running in the latter. With the aid of the smaller Foundationist Party, the Liberal Democrats founded the Democratic Alliance in early 1995, demanding that Thabane step down and allow free elections. Thabane refused, and negotiations broke down.

Ntsu Mokhehle united the various factions of the DA, and went to the negotiation table once more in July, warning Thabane that if negotiations fell through again, the result would be civil war. Thabane, however, refused to even start talks this time, and called for the military to arrest Mokhehle and other leaders on August 1st. The result was widespread protests in the street, which started turning violent. One day after the call for arrests, a company of soldiers went to arrest Mokhehle, only to be fired upon by other members of the military loyal to the Democrats. Thabane declared the DA to be an illegal terrorist outfit, and threatened to arrest key members of the military if they did not exterminate the organization.

The head of the army, Major General Justin Metsing Lekhanya, responded by ordering the arrest of Thabane on the 5th of August, and declared the military's support for Mokhehle. The Defense Minister, however, brought Military Police to the army headquarters and ordered the arrest of Lekhanya. After some fighting in the building, the MPs were publicly executed on top of the building by forces loyal to the Democratic Alliance. Military forces throughout the city- and the country- were effectively paralyzed as conflicting orders came from the civilian government and the army high command.

However, at the same time, other officers under Major General Elias Rameama had been planning a coup, to take over the government, and struck swiftly at their first target, a major military armory in the town of Mazenod, moved there following the Maseru Rebellion of 1988.

The War Starts: Battle of Mazenod
As the rest of the country was paralyzed by the events in Maseru, the officers under Major General Rameama were ready, and swung into action in early morning, August 6th, 1955, the official start date of the war.

Swiftly attacking and seizing one of the military's main armouries, outside Mazenod, they used the weaponry to quickly arm a large number of conscripts, and seized the city of Mazenod, declaring Thabane to be illegitimate, as well as Mokhehle and the army HQ. Thabane responded by declaring the entire army high command under arrest and sent in MPs to arrest him. The DA sent a small militia in, based in that area.

The army had secured the city, and mainly controlled the streets. The MPs were caught by surprise by the entire attack, and by the time of Thabane's announcement, had mostly been neutralized.

The Militia, on the other hand, was ready, and attempted a counter, attacking the army barracks at dawn, killing several soldiers but eventually being driven back.

By this point, more forces loyal to the DA arrived, and attempted an attack on the city itself. After brutal fighting, they managed to secure a beachhead within the city, aided by ordinary citizens, who attempted a protest in the north of the city while the DA attacked the west. The army dispersed the protest by firing into the crowd with first rubber bullets, then actual rounds and mortars. However, they were forced to withdraw forces from the DA attack, and the DA pushed in further.

By evening, however, the army's control of the armoury came into its own, as they were able to deploy heavy artillery against the poorly armed DA militias. After several hours of fighting, the DA were pushed back, out of the city, and forced to retreat. By the 7th of August, the army had fully secured the city.

The First Battle of Maseru

Simultaneously as the forces of coup took over Mazenod, events were rapidly unfolding in Maseru. Following Rameama's declaration, Thabane declared the nation to be in a state of Civil War and denounced both the DA and the military to be traitors.

At the same time, the army was in uproar as factions loyal to the government, the Democrats, and the coup all fought each other.

In Lekhanya's HQ, the situation had devolved into outright fighting between the cabal behind the coup, the Consolisationist government, and the Democrats. However, Rameama had penetrated deep into the army, and after three hours of fighting, Lekhanya was publicly executed on the roof. From that point on, the cabal was entirely in control of the military. However, several groups within the military defected to the DA.

The result was six days of fighting, which finally resulted in King Letsie III being evacuated to a residence near the town of Tosing, far from the fighting, and the government using paramilitary forces to secure the city. However, as the DA and military forces left the city, they quickly began raising large armies in the rest of Lesotho. The period between the end of First Maseru, in November 4th, 1995, to October 29th, 1996, was known as the "Year of Peace", as apart from minor skirmishes the three armies stayed far away from each other while building up their armies and resources.

The Battle of Three Armies
Three Armies was the first truly large battle in the Lesothan Civil War, taking place a year after the war's start. It took place at the city of Tau, which was (nominally) under government control. However, the DA had sneaked several sleeper units into the city, and, on October 29th, struck in a series of attacks designed to paralyze government forces and allow the easy DA takeover of Tau. However, the attacks were botched, and a large part of the government forces in the city survived intact. The result was that the approaching DA army was met with heavy resistance. Three more days of fighting resulted in a deadlock in the city, with DA forces slowly but steadily pushing out Consolidationist forces. However, on November 3rd, the military saw this as an excellent chance to win a quick victory, and surrounded the city, cutting off supplies to both armies, who, outnumbered, running out of ammunition and food, and now trapped, were forced to endure massive artillery barrages for four days. On November 7th, however, DA leaders met with the commander of the Consolidationist forces within the city. Agreeing to a temporary ceasefire within the city, the two gathered their forces, and attacked to the North and West of the city simultaneously; however, the attack to the North was in fact a diversion, and the result was that military lines were shattered. Although the ceasefire to break out had included retreating safely, the DA forces then quickly struck the government forces unexpectedly, killing hundreds and forcing them back into the war-torn city as the army regrouped and took said city.

The resulting three-way battle lasted until January 3rd, 1997, when heavy snows forced the military to pull back, and the DA was finally defeated outside. It would later become known as the Battle of Three Armies.

The Military Strikes Back: First Mafeteng, Toloane, Roma and Second Maseru
The spring of 1997 was marked by a series of massive strikes by the military, designed to vast swathes of land controlled by the DA and the Consolidationist government (which by now only controlled a few cities, and could no longer be considered a governing force over Lesotho). Led mainly by Rameama, the military first consolidated its new HQ in Semonkong, then swiftly struck, overrunning DA troops in Sikaki and Qachas Nek. The DA attempted a counterattack, but this was marred by infighting between the various DA militias, and the result was that the DA stronghold of Thaba-Tseke fell almost without a fight, as one of the militias there defected to the military and the rest were forced to retreat. By early May, the army had taken and fortified most of South-Western Lesotho, and begun a series of strikes towards Mafetang, a major DA stronghold. It was widely believed that the fall of Mafetang would result in the DA collapsing. The DA practiced a scorched-Earth policy in reponce, putting Motanyane to the torch and mining the road between Motanyane and Thabatsoeu. Although they had the ability to move directly to Mafetang, fearful of being surrounded by DA forces, the army chose to take a long march towards Toloane, where the DA had set up a massive defensive force, with thousands of soldiers, and was prepared to withstand a massive attack from military forces.

The Battle of Toloane began on May 14th, when military forces attempted to push DA forces out of cover with a heavy artillery barrage; however, the DA forces were well dug in and took minimal casualties in this attack. The military then set in a wave of armor, backed up with infantry. After fierce fighting, the DA forces retreated to safer positions within the city. At this point, however, for unknown reasons, the commander of the DA forces within the city decided to marshal his forces towards the east of the city; it is thought that he was attempting to break out of the military siege, despite the fact that he was well supplied and had been given strict instructions to hold the city. The military capitalized on this, moving in quickly and seizing high ground to the North of the city, and then using heavy artillery barrages to keep the DA forces pinned down. Despite the fact that they could have still fought back, at this point, the command of the forces surrendered to the military, and the DA forces in the city, trapped and with no command, either followed their example or were wiped out in the resultant fighting.

The setback, as well as disagreements in the DA leadership, led to extremely poor morale at Mafetang. However, as the military approached, the DA high command unexpectedly gave power over the forces within the city to Ntsu Mokhehle, a minor leader noted for his small successes in leading a contingent of DA forces out of Toloane despite the collapse of the command there. Well liked by the soldiers and known for his refusal to surrender, he managed, after two hours of debate, to get the HQ to temporarily grant him control.

As the military approached, therefore, rather than facing a badly led, terrified militia who were ready to flee facing them, they found themselves facing a well organized, prepared army dug in to their positions and ready to face the military. However, this was unknown to Rameama, who, believing that the militias would flee soon, started with a large artillery barrage lasting several hours. Although the DA forces were dug in, they still took a few casualties in this, but still stood at their positions. Rameama, still believing the DA militias were on the breaking point, now ordered a charge to attack the city directly; this would prove to be the biggest blunder of the war, as the military forces were cut to pieces by the calm, prepared forces under Mokhehle. Meanwhile, a contingent of the DA forces had moved out around the military forces and attacked them from behind. The military forces found themselves trapped, and were forced to quickly retreat, their army still intact, but, with re-inforcements from Sekameng arriving, now permanently unable to take Mafetang.