Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Resigns, Ending Four Decades of Rule

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Resigns, Ending Four Decades of Rule
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe talks during celebrations marking his 90th birthday in Marondera, on February 23, 2014. JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP/Getty Images
|Updated:
Robert Mugabe resigned as Zimbabwe’s president on Tuesday a week after the army and his former political allies moved against him, ending four decades of rule by a man who turned from independence hero to archetypal African strongman.

The 93-year-old had clung on for a week after an army takeover and expulsion from his own ruling ZANU-PF party, but resigned shortly after parliament began an impeachment process seen as the only legal way to force him out.