Idi Amin Dada Oumee (/ˈiːdi ɑːˈmiːn, ˈɪdi -/ ^ⓘ, UK also /- æˈmiːn/; 30 May 1928 – 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history.^{[better source needed]}

Amin was born to a Kakwa father and Lugbara mother. In 1946, he joined the King's African Rifles (KAR) of the British Colonial Army as a cook. He rose to the rank of lieutenant, taking part in British actions against Somali rebels and then the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. Uganda gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, and Amin remained in the army, rising to the position of deputy army commander in 1964 and being appointed commander two years later. He became aware that Ugandan president Milton Obote was planning to arrest him for misappropriating army funds, so he launched the 1971 Ugandan coup d'état and declared himself president.

During his years in power, Amin shifted from being a pro-Western ruler enjoying considerable support from Israel to being backed by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko, the Soviet Union, and East Germany. In 1972, Amin expelled Asians, a majority of whom were Indian-Ugandans, leading India to sever diplomatic relations with his regime. In 1975, Amin assumed chairmanship of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), an intergovernmental organization designed to promote solidarity among African states (an annually rotating role). Uganda was a member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1977 to 1979. The United Kingdom broke diplomatic relations with Uganda in 1977, and Amin declared that he had defeated the British and added "CBE" to his title for "Conqueror of the British Empire".

As Amin's rule progressed into the late 1970s, there was increased unrest against his persecution of certain ethnic groups and political dissidents, along with Uganda's very poor international standing due to Amin's support for PFLP-EO and RZ hijackers in 1976, leading to Israel's Operation Entebbe. He then attempted to annex Tanzania's Kagera Region in 1978. Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere ordered his troops to invade Uganda in response. Tanzanian Army and rebel forces successfully captured Kampala in 1979 and ousted Amin from power. Amin went into exile, first in Libya, then Iraq, and finally in Saudi Arabia, where he lived until his death in 2003.

Amin's rule was characterized by rampant human rights abuses including political repression and extrajudicial killings as well as nepotism, corruption, and gross economic mismanagement. International observers and human rights groups estimate that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed under his regime. His brutality and atrocities towards Ugandans has given him the nickname, "The Butcher of Uganda".

Virtually all retellings of Amin's early life are contradictory, as he did not write an autobiography and never authorized a written account of his life. British governmental records put Amin's birth year in 1925; however, no records were kept for native Ugandans at the time. In a 1972 interview with Judith Hare, Amin gives his birthplace as the village of Koboko and his age as 46, which would put his birth year as 1926. In a book published in 1977 by Little, Brown and Company and written by a British advisor in Uganda using the pseudonym David Gwyn, Amin was born in Buganda with his age given as 48, placing his birth year in 1928. The most comprehensive biography of Amin comes from his family based on oral tradition, which has some authority but its details ultimately cannot be confirmed. Family tradition and Saudi authorities in Jeddah puts his birth date as 10 Dhu al-Hijja 1346 in the Islamic calendar (30 May 1928 in the Gregorian Calendar).

According to Amin's family, Ugandan oral tradition, and his Saudi death certificate, Idi Amin Dada Oumee was born on 30 May 1928 around 4 a.m. in his father's workplace, the Shimoni Police Barracks in Nakasero Hill, Kampala. He was given the name Idi after his birth on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. According to Fred Guweddeko, a researcher at Makerere University, Amin's birth name was Idi Awo-Ango Angoo. There is disagreement on the meaning of the name "Dada", with some arguing that it meant "sister" or "effeminate" in Kiswahili, but most sources agree that "Dada" was a clan within the Kakwa tribe which was observed over thirteen generations.

He was the third son of Amin Dada Nyabira Tomuresu (1889–1976), an ethnic Kakwa, and his second wife, Aisha Chumaru Aate (1904–1970), a Lugbara. His father was christened as a Roman Catholic and born with the name Andreas Nyabira Tomuresu. According to British journalist David Martin, Nyabira spent most of his life in South Sudan. He converted to Islam in 1910 after being conscripted as a bugler by the colonial British army under his uncle, the Kakwa tribal leader Sultan Ali Kenyi Dada as a six-year-old child soldier and was given the name Amin Dada. He joined the Protectorate Police Force in Kampala's Nsambia Police Barracks in 1913.