Ex-Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is still under observation after a four-month stay in a Singapore hospital, Zimbabwe’s President has announced.
Speculation about Mugabe’s health has swirled amid his visits to Singapore for treatment, but this is the first time the government has disclosed how long he’s spent at the hospital. Details of his ailment remain a mystery.
“Unlike in the past when the former President would require just a month for this, his physicians this time around determined that he be kept under observation for much longer,” President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Monday in a statement.
Mugabe’s condition was stable, and he was responding “very well” to treatment, Mnangagwa said, citing physicians and senior government officials who visited the ex-President in July.
Mugabe, 95, was Zimbabwe’s president for 37 years until he was forced out in November 2017 following a military takeover that ended his autocratic rule. Mnangagwa, who had been his deputy, is said to have orchestrated Mugabe’s ouster.
Mugabe backed an opposition party against Mnangagwa’s in the 2018 presidential elections, but the leaders have reconciled, according to Mugabe’s wife, Grace, owing to his administration’s support for the Mugabes.