Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean independence icon turned authoritarian leader, has died aged 95.

 

Mugabe had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Singapore since April. He was ousted in a military coup in 2017 after 37 years in power, reported BBC.

 

The former president was praised for broadening access to health and education for the black majority.

 

But later years were marked by violent repression of his political opponents and Zimbabwe's economic ruin.

 

Mugabe, the guerrilla leader who led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980, was the dominant force till 2017 when the army brought an ignominious end to almost four decades of his iron-fisted rule.

 

"It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe's founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe," a post on Mnangagwa's official presidential Twitter account said.

 

In November, Mnangagwa said Mugabe was no longer able to walk when he had been admitted to a hospital in Singapore, without saying what treatment Mugabe had been undergoing.

 

Officials often said he was being treated for a cataract, denying frequent private media reports that he had prostate cancer.

 

But later, many at home and abroad denounced him as a power-obsessed autocrat willing to unleash death squads against his political enemies, rig elections and trash the economy in the relentless pursuit of control.

 

David Coltart, an opposition senator and rights lawyer who opposed Mugabe, nevertheless paid tribute to a leader who once described himself as having "a degree in violence".