PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe says the West is the cause of many of Africa’s problems, urging the continent to “build resistance against them”, according to a report.
According to the state media, Mugabe who was speaking during an interview with a Japanese TV station on the sidelines of the ongoing conference on Disaster Risk Management in Sendai, Japan, said the West wanted regime change in several African countries, including Zimbabwe.
“They [West] want things done their own way… They want regime change in Zimbabwe. They want me to go, them and not my people,” Mugabe was quoted as saying.
Mugabe, 91, urged the African continent to “build” resistance against the West.
The nonagenarian is the current chairperson of the African Union (AU). He is also the Southern African Development Community chairperson.
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980 and has frequently clashed with the West.
The US recently extended sanctions on Zimbabwe by another year, arguing that the veteran leader and his cronies in the ruling Zanu-PF party continued to undermine the southern African country’s democratic processes.
The US sanctions were first imposed in 2003 following the country’s controversial 2002 land reform programme.News24