Stories related to: Robert Mugabe

Teenage pregnancy rates have spiked after youth militia members began raping Zimbabwean girls in President Robert Mugabe's torture camps, human rights workers tell the Times of London . The stigma against rape victims has kept the victims mostly silent, but a single hospital saw a spike of 16 expectant teenagers, and the trend is thought to be fairly widespread. More »

When Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, first learned he’d lost his March bid for re-election, he told supporters he’d concede–but they wouldn’t listen. Instead, Mugabe agreed to let the army swing the vote in his favor. Thus began a campaign of violent intimidation that ultimately forced his opponent to drop out. Using meeting notes and witness reports, the Washington Post describes the brutality. More »

Film shot secretly by a Zimbabwean prison guard shows how President Robert Mugabe’s party used intimidation to earn votes in last week's run-off election, the Guardian reports. In the footage, ruling party members watch as prison officials fill out their ballots and inspect the results. At a rally, party members are shown telling people to feign illiteracy so Mugabe supporters could fill out their ballots for them. More »

Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa is resting comfortably in a Paris hospital, said a government spokesman today, denying "malicious" widespread reports that the leader had died after suffering his second stroke in 2 years ahead of an African Union summit. Mwanawasa "is responding well to treatment. He has made steady progress," said the spokesman. More »

Five years ago Roger Cohen interviewed Thabo Mbeki in the New York Times , and even then the South African president insisted that Zimbabwe will "get over" its conflicts. So as supposed mediator in Zimbabwe's deepening economic and humanitarian disaster, why has Mbeki still done nothing? An earlier act of stubbornness might provide a clue: his AIDS denialism, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives in his own country. More »

The German company that supplies Zimbabwe with the paper for its hyper-inflated currency has caved to pressure from the German government and stopped doing business with embattled dictator Robert Mugabe. The secretive Bavarian firm, Giesecke & Devrient, had been airlifting tons of special blank bank notes—fortified with watermarks and other antiforgery features—to Mugabe so that new currency could be printed, adding more zeros,  every couple of weeks. More »

Zimbabwe’s opposition party won’t accept South African President Thabo Mbeki as a mediator in negotiations with the government, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said today.  Arguing that Mbeki is too close to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai said without another mediator “no meaningful progress can be made.” The African Union supported Mbeki as mediator yesterday, the AP notes. More »

Robert Mugabe has been sworn in for a sixth term as Zimbabwe's president—but this time, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change commands a majority in the country's parliament. That split offers the best hope of deposing Mugabe, writes Mark Y. Rosenberg in the New York Times. The best way to oust the president, he says, might simply be to get rid of the office altogether. More »

The African Union adopted a resolution today calling for President Robert Mugabe to begin negotiations with the Zimbabwean opposition on forming a unity government, Reuters reports. The action marks the first time the AU has censured Mugabe, who once enjoyed a strong reputation as Zimbabwe’s liberator, for his undemocratic practices. More »

"Is that the bad guy?" asks Chipo, the Zimbabwean-born adopted daughter of journalist Neely Tucker, watching Robert Mugabe on TV. She is a constant reminder of life a decade ago in the African nation, he writes in the Washington Post . "Mostly I miss the way it was then only because it looks good by comparison," Tucker writes. More »

Robert Mugabe's spokesman angrily dismissed the possibility of a national unity government today, reports the Guardian , telling the US and other nations supporting the opposition to "go hang." Speaking at the African Union summit, the spokesman told reporters that no other country could interfere in Zimbabwean affairs, and equated British criticisms of Mugabe to colonialism. The African Union holds a special session on Zimbabwe later today. More »

Kenya’s prime minister blasted Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe today, saying it would set a dangerous precedent for the African Union to accept him as "a duly elected president," the BBC reports. "They should suspend him and send peace forces to Zimbabwe to ensure free and fair elections," Raila Odinga said at the AU summit. More »

Newly reinaugurated  Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe arrived today at an African Union summit where he is expected to face pressure to negotiate with the country's opposition. Although Mugabe walked into the conference at an Egyptian resort alongside other leaders, he has faced unprecedented criticism from African governments to yield to international demands, Reuters reports. More »

Robert Mugabe was sworn in today for another 5 years as president of Zimbabwe, after the electoral commission declared him the winner with 85% of the vote in an uncontested but controversial race. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew his candidacy last week over concerns of increasing violence, says he will request that African Union leaders not recognize the election, reports Reuters. More »

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has proudly claimed victory in a run-off vote in which he was the only candidate, CNN reports. Preparations were underway for a swearing-in ceremony, with invitations sent out hours after his declaration. But a party spokesman said the ceremony wouldn’t be held until after the official results are announced at some point today. More »

Robert Mugabe has agents in Britain harassing dissidents and disrupting opposition fundraising, the Independent reports. British security sources confirmed that Zimbabwean government supporters in England are terrorizing the nearly 4,000 supporters of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the UK as Mugabe seeks to keep his grip on power. A key target of the covert operation is the money—up to $20,000 monthly—being chaneled to Tsvangirai's party. More »

Washington is seeking ways to punish Robert Mugabe for his violent "sham" of an election, President Bush said today. Bush has ordered Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to work up sanctions against Zimbabwe, which ran a runoff ballot yesterday with Mugabe the sole candidate. Rice vowed to "press for strong action by the United Nations" against the African nation. More »

Robert Mugabe is wasting little time. Zimbabwe is expected to announce today that he will win in a landslide and be sworn in to a new term as early as tomorrow, Reuters reports. That would allow him to attend Monday's summit of African Union nations with the election wrapped up. Meanwhile, stories continue to surface about Mugabe's supporters forcing people to vote for him under threat of torture or death. More »

Polls are open in Zimbabwe's meaningless presidential runoff vote, with Robert Mugabe running uncontested. Reuters reports that turnout is low several hours into the vote—unlike March's elections, which saw voters wait for hours in snaking lines. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who dropped out earlier this week to prevent further bloodshed, told his supporters that they should abstain, or vote if they thought their lives were in danger. More »

As Zimbabwe's sham run-off election for president began to get underway, even opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged supporters to vote for Robert Mugabe to save themselves from the violent intimidation orchestrated by the government, the Guardian reports. Mugabe's militia has conducted a terror campaign of murder, abduction, imprisonment and rape to cow opposition supporters. More »