Opposition general and veteran Anyanya fighter Paul Dor Lampuar dies aged 81

JUBA, AUGUST 18, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan opposition commander and veteran Anyany and SPLA fighter General Paul Dor Lampuar has died at the age of 81 at a local IDP camp in Unity State’s capital Bentiu, opposition leader Riek Machar says.

Machar who is also South Sudan’s First Vice President said seen by Sudans Post that General Lampuar died on Thursday evening at the Bentiu POC where he was seeking treatment, according to other sources, at an MSF medical facility.

“General Paul Dor Lampuar has passed on this evening at 6:07 PM 17 August 2023 in Protection of Civilians (POC) site in [Rubkona] town in Unity State. He died at age of 81 years. His body shall be laid to rest in his home in [Rubkona] town,” Machar wrote.

The powerful opposition leader praised the veteran Anyanya and SPLA fighter as “a hero of the struggle for Self-Determination and Independence of South Sudan as well as of the Anyanya one.”

“He spent all his life in the struggle for welfare of this country. Despite old age, after crises of 2013 he was also involved in the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan. He will be missed not only by the people of Unity State but by all South Sudanese,” he added.

Lampuar hails from Rubkona County where he was born in mid-1942. He joined the Anyanya movement in the 1960s and then the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/SPLA) to fight for the independence of South Sudan.

Following the independence in 2011, he remained a senior commander in the SPLA until the outbreak of South Sudanese civil war in December 2013.

Machar said in the statement that Lampuar’s body will be laid to rest in his home-county in Rubkona.