Retired General Joseph Lagu Yanga, a former rebel commander who led the Anyanya movement during Sudan’s first civil war and later served as Sudan’s vice-president and ambassador to the United Nations, died in Juba on Tuesday at the age of 94.
President Salva Kiir, who is in Russia to attend the third Russia-Africa summit, declared national mourning for Lagu, describing him as a nationalist and liberation hero who dedicated his life to South Sudan’s struggle for freedom.
In a statement seen by Radio Tamazuj, the president praised Lagu’s contributions as a military officer, diplomat and politician, saying he was among the most significant figures in South Sudan’s history.
Kiir ordered national flags across South Sudan and at the country’s diplomatic missions abroad to fly at half-mast until Lagu’s burial.
He said he would personally bid farewell to Lagu at a state funeral and urged South Sudanese to mourn his death while celebrating his life and legacy.
Kiir also called on the public to pray for Lagu’s family, saying the veteran leader had lived to see the birth of the country for which he fought.
Who was Joseph Lagu?
Gen. Lagu was a central figure in southern Sudan’s struggle for autonomy and helped negotiate the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement, which ended the first north-south civil war and granted the region self-government.
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.
Lagu returned to the Sudanese army after the agreement 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.
The agreement granted southern Sudan a decade of regional self-government. Nimeiry abrogated it in 1983, a move that contributed to renewed conflict in the south.
Lagu’s forces included young officers who later became prominent figures in South Sudan’s history, including Salva 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.
After South Sudan gained independence in 2011, Lagu served as a special adviser to Kiir. He had also held an advisory role during the autonomous southern Sudan administration before independence. He later retired 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. His career spanned the southern rebellion, peace negotiations, senior government positions and diplomatic service, as well as the early years of South Sudan’s independence.
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