Mugabe mourns Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi

Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe has lashed out at continental powerhouses South Africa and Nigeria for being complicit in the death of his slain ally, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, five years after the event.

It is not the first time that Mugabe has chided South Africa in particular for voting with Western countries on the controversial United Nations resolution that gave the United States and its allies the mandate to bomb Libya in support of rebels who were fighting Gaddafi.

Officially opening the 67th regional conference of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Africa, Mugabe said he had been approached to help warring factions in Libya without revealing the group.

Mugabe, whose human rights record has earned his administration pariah status, said although Gaddafi was a dictator, his removal from power was unjustified as it had left Libya in turmoil.

“Gaddafi killed many people, innocent persons and those who opposed his rule and did it callously even to kill his people, innocent people. He united his people, fought for free education, free health . . . he tried to hide, tried to plead, but they attacked him,” the Zanu PF leader told his shocked audience.

Gaddafi was killed in 2012 during a wave of protests that engulfed the Middle East with people demanding leadership change.

Mugabe took delegates drawn from 47 African countries into a monologue on how “powerful States” such as the US and Britain had exploited and removed leaders who they did not want for selfish gains.

With Nigeria struggling to put down the Boko Haram insurrection, Mugabe slammed the West African country for failing to secure its borders despite its “grand status” as the continent’s biggest economy. newsday