Former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was 95. (File)Former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe died Friday at the age of 95. Zimbabwe President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa announced the news on his official Twitter handle and offered condolences saying that Mugabe was “an icon of liberation and a pan-Africanist.”
It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe’s founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe (1/2)
— President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) September 6, 2019
The former president died due to ill health which he was battling for a long time, reported news agency Reuters. Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe for more than three decades, was ousted from power in a military coup in 2017.
Mugabe had declared once that he could be removed from power only by God. But in November 2017, an impeachment process against him was started by the country’s parliament, which is the only legit way to ouster a leader from their power. He resigned shortly after the impeachment process.
Once an independence hero, Mugabe ended the white-minority rule in former Rhodesia. He remained in rule for 37 years in Zimbabwe.
Former British Prime Minister Theresa May, while reacting to Mugabe’s resignation, said, “The resignation of Robert Mugabe provides Zimbabwe with an opportunity to forge a new path free of the oppression that characterised his rule.”
She added that Zimbabwe was an ‘old friend’ and that UK would do everything to support the economy.
