Harare (Zimbabwe): Robert Mugabe, longtime leader of Zimbabwe who was forced to resign in 2017 after a military takeover, died at 95.
His successor and the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, confirmed Mugabe's death in a series of tweets on Friday, mourning him as an "icon of liberation".
Rumours were spread about the former Prime Monister's health. He reportedly spent months in a hospital in Singapore earlier this year. Details of his illness are a guarded secret.
Robert Mugabe was a former guerrilla chief who took power after the end of white minority rule in 1980 and presided over a country whose early promise was eroded by economic turmoil and human rights violations.
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While Mugabe blamed Zimbabwe's economic problems on Western sanctions and said that he wanted to rule for life, growing discontent about the country's leadership prompted a military intervention, impeachment proceedings and massive street demonstrations.
On February 21, 2018, Mugabe marked his first birthday since his resignation in near solitude, far from the lavish affair of past years.