via facebook unbiased america
ROBERT MUGABE, LONGTIME DICTATOR OF ZIMBABWE, HAS DIED
by Kevin Ryan
Robert Mugabe, the longtime ruler of Zimbabwe who used violence and corruption to maintain power for decades before being ousted in a ‘bloodless transition’ imposed by the military in 2017, has died.
Before the coup, Mugabe had been the sole leader of Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980. He rose to power in the 1970s, as a Marxist-Leninist fighting against then Southern Rhodesia’s minority white government.
Upon winning independence and being elected president in 1980, Mugabe's government redistributed land controlled by white farmers to landless blacks, often violently seizing white-owned farms. Food production was severely impacted, generating famine, international sanctions, drastic economic decline, and hyperinflation that was amongst the worst in world history.
For decades, he maintained his grip on the country with the support of the army and a series of controversial elections dominated by violence and electoral fraud. Elections became one-man contests, after all other opponents dropped out days before the poll.
Mugabe became the caricature of an African dictator who oppressed his opponents and ruined a country to retain power. He once infamously claimed that "only God" could ever remove him from office.
He was 95.
SOURCES:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/06/africa/robert-mugabe-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/early-reports-claim-robert-mugabe-stepping-down-grace-mugabe-leaving-zimbabwe/
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/early-reports-claim-robert-mugabe-stepping-down-grace-mugabe-leaving-zimbabwe/
http://theweek.com/speedreads/737473/zimbabwes-robert-mugabe-reportedly-stepping-down-after-military-bloodless-transition
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/world/africa/zimbabwe-mugabe-mnangagwa-chiwenga.html