Cassinga Day is a national public holiday in
Namibia 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 attacked a
SWAPO
The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...
base at
Cassinga in southern
Angola". Commemorations are marked yearly by ceremonies at
Heroes' Acre, outside of
Windhoek. These ceremonies are attended by many important national political figures, including incumbent
President Hage Geingob and former
Presidents
Hifikepunye Pohamba and
Sam Nujoma (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
Cassinga, followed by a deployment of
paratroopers. 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