South Sudanese liberation leader General Joseph Lagu Yanga will be buried east of the Pope Francis Pavilion at the Dr John Garang Mausoleum site in Juba, the organising committee for his state funeral has announced.
President Salva Kiir Mayardit selected the burial site as
part of arrangements for a state funeral honouring the former Anyanya One
commander. The burial date has not yet been announced.
The pavilion is the structure where Pope Francis celebrated
Mass during his visit to South Sudan on February 5, 2023.
The site is also the resting place of Dr John Garang de
Mabior, the founding chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM),
who died in a helicopter crash in July 2005.
Garang joined the Anyanya movement in 1970 and later served
under Lagu's command. Kiir was among the officers trained by Lagu during the
first liberation struggle.
Lagu led the Anyanya movement during Sudan's first civil war
and played a central role in negotiations that produced the 1972 Addis Ababa
Agreement, which ended the war 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.
Born on November 21, 1931, in Momokwe, present-day Magwi County in Eastern Equatoria State, Lagu died in Juba on October 27, 2026, aged 94.