South Sudan has declared Friday, November 13, 2026, a public holiday to allow citizens to attend the state funeral of veteran liberation leader General Joseph Lagu Yanga, the State Funeral High-Level Committee has announced.
Committee spokesperson Ambassador John Andruga Duku said on Wednesday that the holiday would allow members of the public, civil servants and employees of international organisations to attend the funeral or follow the proceedings from their homes.
“Friday, November 13, 2026, will be a public holiday. There will be no work on Friday in honour of the burial of a great leader, General Joseph Lagu Yanga,” Andruga said.
He said members of the public would be free to attend the church service and burial ceremony or watch the proceedings from their homes.
“Those who can come to the mausoleum are free to come. Those who want to go to church are free to attend, while those who wish to watch from their homes are also free to do so,” he said.
Andruga described the day as a special occasion for South Sudan, saying the public holiday would enable people to participate in the final farewell to one of the country’s prominent liberation figures.
The requiem service will begin at 6 a.m. at All Saints Cathedral of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in Mobil, Juba, before Lagu’s remains are taken to the designated burial site east of the Pope Francis Pavilion at the venue popularly known as the Dr. John Garang Mausoleum.
Andruga urged members of the public wishing to attend the burial to arrive early because of security arrangements and screening procedures.
“We ask members of the public who wish to attend to come very early, as early as 6 a.m. on Friday, because there will be strict security screening,” he said.
He also called on media houses planning to cover the funeral to coordinate with the committee to facilitate access to the designated areas.
Andruga said the committee is working with the South Sudan National Communication Authority and the relevant media bodies to ensure journalists could access the funeral venue.
Public viewing
President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Wednesday officially opened public viewing of Lagu’s body at the national parliament in Juba, allowing citizens to pay their final respects to the former Anyanya movement leader.
The body was taken to parliament on Wednesday and will be transferred to the family home on Thursday to allow relatives to pay their final respects.
Lagu, who led the Anyanya movement during Sudan’s first civil war and played a central role in negotiations that produced the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement, died in Juba on October 27, 2026, aged 94.
Born on November 21, 1931, in Momokwe, in the Madi area of what is now South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria State, Lagu trained as a military officer before defecting from the Sudanese army in 1963 to join the southern rebellion.
In 1968, he became leader of the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement and commander-in-chief of its armed wing, Anyanya. Under his leadership, the movement negotiated the Addis Ababa Agreement with the government of President Gaafar Nimeiry in 1972, ending a conflict that had begun in 1955.
The agreement granted southern Sudan a decade of regional self-government. Nimeiry abrogated it in 1983, a move that contributed to renewed conflict.
Lagu later returned to the Sudanese army and rose to the rank of lieutenant-general. He served as president of the High Executive Council of the autonomous Southern Region from 1978 to 1979 and as Sudan’s second vice-president from 1982 to 1985.
His forces included young officers who later became prominent figures in South Sudan’s history, including President Kiir and the late John Garang, who served under his command during the Anyanya rebellion.
After Nimeiry was overthrown in 1985, Lagu settled in Britain before returning to public service as Sudan’s roving ambassador from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1992 to 1998. He also served as Sudan’s permanent representative to the United Nations from 1990 to 1992.
Following South Sudan’s independence in 2011, Lagu served as a special adviser to Kiir before retiring from active public service.
In November 2022, his family launched the Joseph Lagu Foundation, which focuses on education, leadership development, community empowerment and humanitarian assistance in South Sudan.
Lagu completed his memoir, Sudan Odyssey: Through a State from Ruin to Hope, in 2006.
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