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Zimbabwe’s former leader Mugabe dead
Mugabe enjoyed strong support among the population and even the West soon after taking over as prime minister and Zimbabwe’s first post-colonial leader.
Former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, an ex-guerrilla chief who took power when the country shook off white minority rule and presided for decades while economic turmoil and human rights violations eroded its early promise, has died in Singapore. He was 95.
Mugabe enjoyed strong support among the population and even the West soon after taking over as prime minister and Zimbabwe’s first post-colonial leader.
But he was reviled in later years as the economy collapsed and human rights violations increased. His often violent takeover of farms from whites who owned huge tracts of land made him a hated figure in the West and a hero in Africa.
His successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, announced Mugabe’s death in a tweet on Friday, mourning him as an “icon of liberation”.
Singapore’s foreign ministry later said he died on Friday at the Gleneagles Hospital there, saying it was working with Zimbabwe on arrangements for Mugabe’s body to be flown home. Mugabe had received medical treatment at the hospital in recent years.
Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, in Zvimba, 60km west of the capital of Harare.
India condoled the demise of Mugabe, hailing him as a “true friend” and “an icon of liberation”. The ministry of external affairs, in a statement, described Mugabe as a “true friend” of India and said it was with great sadness that it learned of his demise.
Zimbabwe’s president declared Mugabe a “national hero” on Friday, adding that the country would mourn the former leader until his burial. “(Ruling party) Zanu-PF has met and accorded him the national hero status that he richly deserved,” Mnangagwa said.
