Joseph Lagu was a South Sudanese military commander and politician who led the Anyanya rebellion in Sudan’s first civil war and signed the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement that ended it. He later served as president of the autonomous Southern Region’s High Executive Council, as Sudan’s second vice-president from 1982 to 1985, and as Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations. He died in Juba on 27 October 2026, aged 94.

Born in Momokwe, in present-day Magwi County, Eastern Equatoria, on 21 November 1931, he was a member of the Madi community. He trained at the Military College in Omdurman before defecting in 1963 to join the southern rebellion.