Cassinga Day is a national public holiday in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

remembering the

Cassinga Massacre The Battle of Cassinga also known as the Cassinga Raid or Kassinga Massacre was a controversial South African airborne forces, airborne attack on a SWAPO, South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) military camp at the town of Cassinga, Ang ...

. Commemorated annually on 4 May, the date "remembers those (approximately 600) killed in 1978 when the

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence F ...

attacked a SWAPO base at

Cassinga Cassinga or Kassinga is a town and commune in the municipality of Jamba, province of Huíla, Angola. It is situated on an old and important two-track road from Jamba to Huambo. Established as an ore mine and during the Civil War allegedly u ...

in southern

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

". Commemorations are marked yearly by ceremonies at Heroes' Acre, outside of

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...

. These ceremonies are attended by many important national political figures, including incumbent

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Hage Geingob Hage Gottfried Geingob (born 3 August 1941) is a Namibian politician, serving as the third president of Namibia since 21 March 2015. Geingob was the first Prime Minister of Namibia from 1990 to 2002, and served as prime minister again from 201 ...

and former

Hifikepunye Pohamba Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born 18 August 1936) is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 presidential election overwhelmingly as the candidate of SWAPO, and wa ...

and

Sam Nujoma Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma, (; born 12 May 1929) is a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served three terms as the first President of Namibia, from 1990 to 2005. Nujoma was a founding member and the first ...

(as of 2016).

4 May 1978

In the morning of May 4, 1978, the South African Defence Force ran an air strike on camp ''Cassinga'' near the village of

, followed by a deployment of

paratroopers A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during World ...

. The camp was inhabited by exiled SWAPO sympathisers and their families. 165 men, 294 women and 300 children died in this attack. Later the same day the nearby camp ''Vietnam'' in the village of Tchetequela was also attacked. the graves are unmarked but the Namibian government plans to erect a memorial site.

References

{{Public holidays in Namibia Public holidays in Namibia History of Namibia Battle of Cassinga May observances