Zimbabwe’s Former President Robert Mugabe Who Ruled The Country For 37 Years Dies In Singapore Aged 95

Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has died aged 95 in Singapore where he had been admitted at a hospital for treatment since April 2019, reports BBC.

An important figure in the country’s revolutionary movement against the white Rhodesian government, Mugabe became internationally infamous for the violent policies of land redistribution adopted by his government to take over land farmed by whites to be given out to the black majority.

He was overthrown in 2017 in a military coup after a 37 years at the helm of the country. Widely seen as an authoritarian, Mugabe had faced accusations of repressing political opponents and overseeing the destruction of the country’s economy.

The country’s currency, the Zimbabwean dollar, had seen one of the most dramatic collapses in world history during his reign, and millions of Zimbabweans were forced to seek refuge in neighbouring countries as their own nation faced economic collapse.

Although Mugabe and his political party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) were widely understood to be influenced by the ideas of Marxism and left-wing extremism, the former president once also claimed that Mahatma Gandhi’s actions against British rule in India had been his greatest inspiration.