Zimbabwe’s ex-President Robert Mugabe dies aged 95

Zimbabwe’s former and longest serving President Robert Mugabe has been reported dead at age 95.

Robert Mugabe was Zimbabwe president from 1980 to 2017, making him the longest-serving president of the country.

Zimbabwe’s education secretary Fadzayi Mahere confirmed this when she tweeted “Rest In Peace, Robert Mugabe”.

Mugabe who infamously claimed that “only God” could ever remove him from office was deposed in a coup in 2017, when members of his own party turned against him after he dismissed then vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa to make way for his wife, Grace.

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Even though he was once touted internationally as the hope of his nation, Mugabe left office with a grim legacy, after waging a campaign of oppression and violence to maintain power, and driving into poverty a country once known as the breadbasket of southern Africa.

Rumors swirled earlier this year about the health of the ex-president, who spent months in a hospital in Singapore.

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His first wife Sally Mugabe, was a Ghanaian who died in 1992. He was married to Grace Mugabe at the time of his death.

He is survived by four children.