{"id":49303,"date":"2026-10-29T12:03:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=49303"},"modified":"2026-10-29T12:03:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:03:41","slug":"flags-at-half-mast-as-south-sudan-mourns-icon-liberation-leader-joseph-lagu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/29\/flags-at-half-mast-as-south-sudan-mourns-icon-liberation-leader-joseph-lagu\/","title":{"rendered":"Flags at half mast as South Sudan mourns icon liberation leader Joseph Lagu"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lodu William Odiya<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

President Salva Kiir Mayardit has ordered the flag to fly at half-mast following the death of a veteran South Sudanese liberation leader, military officer, politician and diplomat, General Joseph Lagu Yanga.<\/p>\n

President Kiir said that he would personally bid General Lagu a state farewell in honour of his life and legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn honour of his dedicated service to our nation, I declare the following; all flags of the Republic of South Sudan and its diplomatic missions must fly at half-mast until His Excellency General Joseph Lagu Yanga is laid to rest,\u201d according to the presidential press unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will personally bid him a state farewell to honour his life and legacy,” it stated.<\/p>\n

President Kiir stated that General Lagu passed away peacefully, describing him as a towering nationalist and liberation hero who dedicated his life to the cause of freedom for South Sudan.<\/p>\n

He also praised General Lagu as a prominent South Sudanese statesman, military officer, veteran diplomat and politician, emphasising that his contributions placed him among the most historic figures in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The head of state further urged South Sudanese to mourn his passing while celebrating his life, noting that General Lagu lived to see the birth of the country he fought for.<\/p>\n

He called on the nation to unite in prayer for General Lagu\u2019s family and to honour his legacy as South Sudan mourns one of its historic liberation figures.<\/p>\n

General Lagu led the Anyanya One movement during the first Sudanese civil war and became a leading figure in the southern Sudanese rebellion in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

He helped organise and strengthen Anyanya One in its struggle against the Sudanese government, seeking self-determination for southern Sudan.<\/p>\n

One of his greatest historical contributions was his role in the peace negotiations that led to the Addis Ababa Agreement, signed in 1972 with Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry.<\/p>\n

The agreement ended the first north-south civil war and granted southern Sudan regional autonomy.<\/p>\n

After the peace agreement, Lagu returned to military service and later entered politics. He became president of the High Executive Council of the autonomous Southern Region in 1978 and served as Sudan’s second vice-president from 1982 to 1985.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lodu William Odiya President Salva Kiir Mayardit has ordered the flag to fly at half-mast following the death of a veteran South Sudanese liberation leader, military officer, politician and diplomat, General Joseph Lagu Yanga. President Kiir said that he would personally bid General Lagu a state farewell in honour[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":49304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Late-General.-Joseph-Lagu-Yanga.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49305,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49303\/revisions\/49305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}