A portrait of Late Mary Biba

An SPLA (now SSPDF) veteran and first female commissioner in South Sudan has passed on in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Mary Biba passed away on Tuesday morning. Doctor’s report shows she succumbed to kidney failure at age of 77.

“She passed this morning around 9 o’clock in Kampala. We are trying to organize how to transport the body to Yambio for burial,” her Son Charles Kisanga, told Eye Radio.

Mama Biba served as the first female commissioner of Yambio during the liberation struggle from 1999 to 2005.

Afterward, she was nominated by the then first Vice President of Sudan as a member of parliament in the Western Equatoria State Legislative Assembly under the leadership of the Late Governor Samuel Abu John.

However, later during the transitional period of CPA, she was appointed Western Equatoria State Advisor on Gender and HIV/AIDS.

Mama Biba had been reportedly instrumental in creating the Girls’ Education Task Force to increase literacy among girls in Yambio County and had been at the forefront of efforts to prevent children from being recruited into the rebel army.