Staff ReporterZimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has resigned, ending his 37-year rule.
The country’s parliamentary speaker made the announcement, saying he had received a resignation letter from Mr Mugabe.
His resignation follows moves by both Zimbabwe’s ruling and opposition parties to impeach the 93-year-old leader.
Pressure had also come from ousted vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who said Mr Mugabe should acknowledge the nation’s “insatiable desire” for a leadership change and resign immediately.
It is a stunning end for what was the world’s oldest leader.
Mr Mugabe has been in charge since the end of white minority rule in 1980, but the military moved in last week after he fired Mr Mnangagwa and appeared to position his unpopular wife to succeed him.
Zimbabwe’s polarising first lady, Grace Mugabe, had long been seen as a successor to husband, leading a party faction that engineered Mr Mnangagwa’s removal.
The prospect of a dynastic succession alarmed the military, which confined Mr Mugabe to his home last week and targeted what it called “criminals” around him who were allegedly looting state resources – a reference to associates of the first lady.
