Mbeki to attend Garang funeral
2005-08-05 10:52
Johannesburg - President Thabo Mbeki will depart for Sudan on Saturday from Addis Ababa to attend the funeral of the former southern Sudanese rebel leader John Garang, a foreign affairs spokesperson said on Friday.
"President Mbeki will leave Addis Ababa to join other leaders paying their respects at the funeral service of the late Sudanese vice president and leader of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, John Garang, in Juba," said Ronnie Mamoepa.
He said Mbeki was in Ethiopia to attend an emergency African Union summit called to discuss the Africa's position on United Nations reform and the security situation in Sudan and Mauritania, where army officers seized power in a coup d'etat on Wednesday.
Garang, 60, died when the Ugandan helicopter in which he was travelling to southern Sudan crashed in a remote area of the region almost a week ago.
The former leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) became vice president under a peace deal signed on January 9 that ended 21 years of conflict between north and south Sudan, Africa's longest-running civil war.
He will be buried in Juba, the capital of autonomous southern Sudan, on Saturday and his funeral is expected to draw half a million people.