Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean leader and 'modern dictator', dies aged 95

Robert Mugabe, the controversial former prime minister and president of Zimbabwe, has died aged 95.

Confirming Mr Mugabe had died, Zimbabwe's current President Emmerson Mnangagwa called him the nation's "founding father".
"Mugabe was an icon of liberation, a pan-Africanist who dedicated his life to the emancipation and empowerment of his people," the tweet read.
"His contribution to the history of our nation and continent will never be forgotten. May his soul rest in eternal peace."
Mr Mugabe led the country to independence from Britain and dominated Zimbabwean politics for nearly four decades up to his ousting two years ago.
A report on Zimbabwean news site ZimLive said Mr Mugabe died this morning in a hospital in Singapore.
Known by his supporters as a warrior against white imperialism, Robert Mugabe will be remembered by the West as a dictator who presided over the decline of his nation.
Born on February 21, 1924, in a small mission in what was then known as Southern Rhodesia, he was the third of six children.
Mr Mugabe made his name leading the 1970s guerrilla war against Rhodesia's white minority rule, earning a reputation among his countrymen and fellow African leaders as a revolutionary fighting for the freedom of his people.
In 1980, following a campaign plagued by violence and claims of vote rigging, he was sworn in as prime minister, bringing an end to white rule.
He later abolished the position of prime minister and assumed the new role — and additional powers — of president.

Over the next two decades his socialist policies saw Zimbabwe's once reasonably stable economy take a dive, sending much of the population into extreme poverty thanks to hyperinflation and food shortages.