Concern is growing in Zimbabwe after a 92 year-old man was
reported missing after claiming on Monday he was traveling to India. The
missing person’s name: Robert Mugabe.
The veteran Zimbabwean leader, who has been in power for 36
years, and is the world’s oldest serving head of state, was reported to
have left the country on Monday to attend the World Culture Festival in
New Delhi, which kicks off in the Indian capital on Friday.
Since then, however, his whereabouts have become something
of a mystery. Mugabe canceled his visit to the festival on Wednesday with his
spokesman George Charamba citing “substantial inadequacies in protocol and
security arrangements” and saying that Mugabe would return home in “a couple of
days.”
Yet the president does not appear to have returned to
Zimbabwe, with speculation that Mugabe may have travelled to Singapore, where
he is reported to have previously received medical treatment.
U.S. diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks in 2011 claimed
that Mugabe was suffering from prostate cancer, though it is not known whether
the president still suffers from the disease.
Zimbabwe’s higher education Jonathan Moyo took to twitter to
defend the president’s cancellation of the trip but only added to the mystery
by indicating that, while Mugabe did not go to India, he was not in Zimbabwe
either.