Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe dead

According to reports, he died surrounded by the family including his wife Grace.

Current president Emmerson Mnangagwa in a tweet announced the death.

The former Zimbabwean leader died aged 95.

It is reported that Mugabe had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness since April.

About his political career

Once touted internationally as the hope of his nation, Mugabe left office with a grim legacy, after waging a campaign of oppression and violence to maintain power, and driving into poverty a country once known as the breadbasket of southern Africa.

He began his political career as a leader in the quest for the independence of Zimbabwe -- then known as Rhodesia -- and was regularly compared to South Africa's venerated freedom fighter Nelson Mandela.

As a revolutionary guerrilla leader, he fought white-minority rule and spent years in jail as a political prisoner.