South Sudan liberation struggle veteran Gen Stephen Ogut Obongo is dead.
Obongo died at Juba’s Nile King Hospital on Thursday.
Born around 1938 in Akobo, on the northeastern outskirts of Juba, Obongo grew up herding cattle and honing his hunting skills, before he enrolled at a Christian school in Akobo District (now Akobo County, Jonglei State) in 1948. It is noteworthy that formal education was initially frowned upon by his village elders.
Seeking solutions for his education challenges, he secretly traveled to Obeel, a riverine village on the southern outskirts of Malakal. He enrolled in a public school between 1950 and 1955. Additionally, while in Obeel, Obongo joined a student campaign group advocating a secular Sudan, coinciding with the country’s independence from British on January 1, 1956.
The southern Sudanese students did not welcome the independence, prompting the Khartoum government to shut down schools in the south due to student protests following the 1955 Torit mutiny. The development deeply affected Obongo who missed the intermediate leaving examination in 1956. Like many other students, he was repatriated to his hometown of Akobo, where he made a life-defining decision – to join the armed resistance.
Obongo’s choice to take up arms would shape the course of his life and establish him as a prominent figure in the fight for freedom in South Sudan.
The years leading to Sudan’s independence in 1956 were tumultuous for students in the south. Student protests and guerrilla warfare triggered by the Torit mutiny of 1955, ravaged villages in Bahr el-Ghazal and Upper Nile. The Government of Sudan (GoS), perceiving the sympathy to the mutineers as a threat, responded by a widespread shutdown of schools across the south.
Even in Upper Nile, Obeel, an elementary and intermediate school, was not spared. Students were forced to abandon studies, including Obongo and his companions, who then returned to Akobo where they would later join the Anya Nya guerrilla movement.
The Torit mutiny of August 18, 1955, marked a turning point that would lead to the secession of South Sudan on July 9, 2011. It is important to note that resistance against foreign domination had begun long before the mutiny. The mutiny paved the way for the formation of the Anya Nya guerrilla movement, known variously as Jeydor (Nuer), Kuloyam, Jo Keem, and Nyigat in Upper Nile, before the locals became aware of the name Anya Nya.
The post-independence Sudan witnessed continued unrest after 1956. Protests and guerrilla warfare became commonplace in major towns of the south, as opposition to the Khartoum regime gained momentum particularly among politicians and students.
In 1957, the province of Upper Nile became a turning point in the quest for freedom. Local elites formed an all-out military outfit in Akobo called the Anyanya Upper Nile Command. Paul Ruot (a Nuer), Paul Adung (a Collo), Paul Awel (a Dinka), and Paul Nyingori Ojulu (an Anyuak) were instrumental in pioneering this insurrection.
Led by one of the Pauls—Nyingori, the movement established itself as an effective fighting machine by the early 1960s.
From 1957 to 1963, the movement focused on reorganizing and mobilizing support, carrying out frequent guerrilla attacks on soft military targets. One notable attack led by Nyingori and in which Obongo participated, involved seizing three semiautomatic rifles from the police deployed to a farm in Pochalla Town. This successful incident strengthened support for the war effort.
Obongo played a crucial role as a commander responsible for mobilizing resources and recruiting personnel for the military outfit between 1957 and 1963.
In September 1963, the freedom fighters launched an attack on a military outpost in Pochalla. The attack followed a weeklong siege, during which the freedom fighters blocked access to water supply points. The attacking forces were led by Ruot, Adung, Awel, and Nyingori. Obongo was among the commanders who participated in the 1963 liberation of the Pochalla border town.
After the Pochalla attack, Paul Awel, Paul Adung, Ruot, and Nyingori, decided to separate in order to expand the rebellion.
Obongo remained as a commander, taking charge of logistic, mobilization, and training at Akobo’s Aparawanga, the headquarters of the Anyanya Upper Nile Command.
One problem with the Anyanya-I movement was the lack of coordination among the commanders. This lack of central command in Bahr el-Ghazal, Equatoria, and Upper Nile was resolved by the support of Israel’s Mossad.
In 1968, Gen. Nyingori, who had fallen out with Ethiopia, an Anyanya support base, was ousted as the Upper Nile regional commander by Joseph Oteho. Obongo was a co-leader of the military ouster of his defiant colleague, Nyingori. He then received further military training in Eritrea, between 1968 and 1970.
In 1970-71, he was among those commanders airlifted to Israel for a specialized military training.
In 1972, following the Addis Ababa Agreement which ended the First Sudanese Civil War, Obongo was absorbed as a lieutenant colonel with the Sudan Armed Force (SAF), later rising to the rank of a major general and becoming a commander of Sudan’s military driving school. In 1996, while deployed in Pochalla to lead SAF’s counter-insurgency operation, Obongo defected to the SPLM/A. He was prominent within the ranks of the SPLA until post-Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) when he joined politics.
Obongo joined the Jo Keem guerrilla movement in 1958. In 1962/63, heparticipated in the Pochalla attack.
In 1965, heplayed a crucial role in establishing Aparawanga, a military headquarters on the eastern outskirts of Akobo, as one of the retreating Anya Nya fighters,
He was in 1967 wounded in a fierce battle at the king’s palace and received treatment in Gambella, where he reunited with Joseph Oteho, the future leader of the Anya Nya Upper Nile Command (AUC). In 1968, Obongo collaborated with Oteho and other Anya Nya officers to plan and execute a successful coup, leading to the overthrow of Gen Nyingori.
Between 1968–71, Obongopursued three months intensive military training in Asmara and later in Israel. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of major and appointed a logistics officer.
In 1972, he wasintegrated as a lieutenant colonel into SAF and assigned to Battalion 104 in Akobo. He received further military training in Jibet, Eastern Sudan and Omdurman.
The 1982-83 period saw him promoted to the rank of colonel and entrusted with representing SAF in the Fourth Regional Assembly in Juba.
He recaptured Pochalla from the SPLA in 1983 without confrontation and advised King Agada to allow the SPLA to vacate Pochalla to prevent bloodshed.
Between 1983–86, Obongo was elevated to the rank of brigadier and appointed the head of the military driving school in Jeli, Khartoum.
He retired from SAF in 1986 but was a decade later recalled by the Government of Sudan to implement military and civilian counterinsurgency strategies in Pochalla. During his time, Obongo defected to the SPLA, and Dr John Garang immediately named him a commander.
From 1996–2004, he served in various capacities within the SPLA, including as the second in command to Gen. Mabil Riak and later as Gen. Thomas Cirilo’s deputy in Yei. He also served as Gen. John Koang’s deputy military governor for Jonglei.
From 2005–2010 he served as a security advisor in the Jonglei State government.
Between 2010–2025,Obongo served as an MP representing Akobo County in the Jonglei State Legislative Assembly.