JUBA, South Sudan – Sudan has requested to participate in the burial of South Sudanese liberation leader General Joseph Lagu Yanga, with a delegation expected in Juba later this week, a presidential official has said.
Ambassador Sunday Chot Riek, chief of protocol in the Office of the President, said the Sudanese delegation is expected to arrive on Thursday or Friday. He added that Sudan would be the only foreign country represented at the burial.
Lagu, who led the Anyanya One movement during Sudan’s first civil war, played a central role in negotiations that produced the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement, which ended the conflict and granted Southern Sudan regional self-government.
He later 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. He also served as Sudan’s permanent representative to the United Nations from 1990 to 1992.
Lagu died in Juba on October 27, 2026, aged 94. His body will be taken to the national parliament on Wednesday for public viewing before being moved to his family home on Thursday.
A requiem Mass will be held at All Saints Cathedral of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in Mobil on Friday, followed by his burial at Freedom Square, east of the Pope Francis Pavilion, in Juba. The site is also where former Sudan People’s Liberation Movement leader Dr John Garang is buried. President Salva Kiir Mayardit selected the burial location.
