harvest had been exhausted and the 1916 harvest had not matured; Belgian requisitions alienated the local civilians. On 5 April, the Belgians offered an armistice to the Germans and then on 12 April commenced hostilities. The advanced between Kigali and Nyanza under the command of General Charles Tombeur, Colonel Molitor and Colonel Olsen and captured Kigali on 6 May. The Germans in Burundi were forced back and by 17 June the Belgians had occupied Burundi and Rwanda. The and the British Lake Force then advanced towards Tabora, an administrative centre of central German East Africa. The Allies moved in three columns and took Biharamulo, Mwanza, Karema, Kigoma and Ujiji. Tabora was captured unopposed on 19 September. To forestall Belgian claims on the German colony, Smuts ordered Belgian forces back to Congo, leaving them as occupiers only in Rwanda and Burundi. The British were obliged to recall Belgian troops in 1917 and after this the Allies coordinated campaign plans. Military operations, 1917–1918 Major-General Jacob van Deventer began an offensive in July 1917, which by early autumn had pushed the Germans to the south. From 1917, Lettow-Vorbeck and the British fought a mutually costly battle at Mahiwa, with casualties and casualties. After the news of the battle reached Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck was promoted to Generalmajor. British units forced the further south and on 23 November, Lettow-Vorbeck crossed into Portuguese Mozambique to plunder supplies from Portuguese garrisons. The Germans marched through Mozambique in caravans of troops, carriers, wives and children for nine months. Lettow-Vorbeck divided the force into three groups, one detachment of under Theodor Tafel, was forced to surrender after running out of food and ammunition when Lettow-Vorbeck and Tafel were unaware they were only one day’s march apart. The Germans returned to German East Africa and then crossed into Northern Rhodesia in August 1918. On 13 November two days after the Armistice was signed in France, the German Army took Kasama unopposed. The next day at the Chambezi River, Lettow-Vorbeck was handed a telegram announcing the signing of the armistice and he agreed to a cease-fire. Lettow-Vorbeck marched his army to Abercorn and formally surrendered on 23 November 1918. Makonbe uprising, 1917 In March 1917 the Makonbe people achieved a measure of social unity, rebelled against the Portuguese colonialists in Zambezia province of Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique) and defeated the colonial regime. About 20,000 rebels besieged the Portuguese in Tete. The