Robert Mugabe, the former dictator of the African country of Zimbabwe, has died at the age of 95.
Mugabe was one of the key figures in the 15-year conflict known as the Rhodesian Bush War, fought from 1964 to 1979. During that period, guerrilla insurgents waged a war against the government of what was then the nation of Rhodesia, led by Prime Minister Ian Smith.
The war was brought to an end by the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979, which also dissolved the nation of Rhodesia and established the country of Zimbabwe in its place.
The following year, in the new country’s first parliamentary elections, Mugabe was elected prime minister. He would be re-elected in 1985, and was then elected president in 1990 after a rewriting of the country’s constitution. He would subsequently be re-elected four more times, with each term lasting six years.
Mugabe, a self-identified Marxist, brought Zimbabwe to economic ruin during his presidency, and also oversaw human rights violations and corruption during his tenure. Mugabe once declared that only God could remove him from power, although he was eventually deposed in a coup in 2017, at the age of 93. He was replaced by his vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mugabe’s health had reportedly been declining in the final years of his presidency, and he had recently made numerous trips to Singapore for medical treatment, although the exact illness and cause of his death have not been confirmed.