South Sudan mourns ‘woman of immense courage’

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South Sudan mourns ‘woman of immense courage’

9:38 CAT | 03 May 2022

The government and the people of South Sudan are mourning a prominent ex-female fighter, Aguil Chut-Deng, who died recently at the age of 58 in mysterious circumstances in Brisbane, Australia.

South Sudanese news outlets reported that Ms Aguil went missing on Wednesday last week as she left the house for her daily exercise and never returned home.

The police found her body in some woods in Brisbane on Saturday. The cause of death or how she ended up in the woods remain unclear.

Ms Aguil rose to prominence when she left school in 1984 at the age of 20, and joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), a rebel movement that fought for independence against successive governments in Khartoum from 1983 to 2005.

She was an active fighter in the Katiba Banat or Ladies’ Battalion, which fought alongside their male counterparts during the 21-year war, which led to the independence of South Sudan in 2011.

In a condolence message to her family, President Salva Kiir described the late fighter as “a bigger-than-life personality and a woman of immense courage in her generation”.

“In her death, our country has lost a patriot who has worked tirelessly for the cause of our freedom,” President Kiir said.

Many South Sudanese on social media paid tribute to the Ms Aguil.

Some described her death as “a great loss to the nation” and to women in particular. They called her “a courageous woman who was a role model”.

Source: BBC