:en:Cassinga Day
{{short description|National public holiday in Namibia}}
{{Infobox holiday
|holiday_name = Cassinga Day
|type = National
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|observedby = Namibia
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|date = 4 May
|scheduling = Same date each year
|frequency = Annual
|duration = 1 day}}
Cassinga Day is a national public holiday in Namibia remembering the Cassinga Massacre. Commemorated annually on 4 May, the date "remembers those (approximately 600)[http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=29057 Let's Review Our National Holidays] in The Namibian, 27 April, 2007 killed in 1978 when the South African Defence Force attacked a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola".[http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookInternal/138840/society/ The Commonwealth Yearbook] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927022748/http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookInternal/138840/society/ |date=September 27, 2007 }} 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).[https://web.archive.org/web/20121019172230/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-09/21/content_5119906.htm Namibian national reconciliation policy] in Xinhua News Agency, 21 September, 2006.
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. {{As of|2016}} the graves are unmarked but the Namibian government plans to erect a memorial site.{{Cite news | title=Remembering Cassinga Day | last=Muraranganda | first=Elvis | newspaper=New Era | date=3 May 2016 | page=3 | url=https://www.newera.com.na/2016/05/03/remembering-cassinga-day/ }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}