Two of Africa’s longest-serving presidents have held a meeting ahead of the Africa Union Summit in Addis Ababa, next week.
According to The Herald newspaper AU Chairman Mugabe, who returned home from vacation in the Far East on Friday after close to a month away, met Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who is on a three-day official visit to Zimbabwe, for consultations before the 26th African Union Summit.
Before his return to the country, rumour mill had it that Mugabe, 91, had ‘died’ after suffering a heart attack. The Nonagerian turns 92 next month and preparations by his party, the ZANU–PF to celebrate his birthday, usually held on February 21, are underway at the Great Zimbabwe.
Mugabe, the first and only post-Independence leader of Zimbabwe has been in power since 1980, while his guest Mbasogo came to power after ousting his uncle Francois Macias Nguema through a coup in 1979.
This year the two presidents mark 36 and 37 years in power, the latter being only 5 years shy of Africa’s longest-ever serving president, Col Muammar El Gadhafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years.
