Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has resigned, bringing an end to 37 years of rule and sparking jubilant celebrations in the nation’s streets.

A letter from Mr Mugabe read out by the speaker of parliament said the decision was voluntary and he had made it to allow a smooth transfer of power.

The news abruptly halted an impeachment hearing that had begun against him.

The ruling Zanu-PF party says former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa will succeed Mr Mugabe, in power since 1980.

Mr Mnangagwa’s sacking earlier this month triggered a political crisis.

It had been seen by many as an attempt to clear the way for Grace Mugabe to succeed her husband as leader and riled the military leadership, who stepped in and put Mr Mugabe under house arrest.

After the resignation announcement, lawmakers roared in jubilation.

Mr Mugabe, 93, was until his resignation the world’s oldest leader. He had previously refused to quit despite last week’s military takeover and days of protests.

According to the constitution his successor should be the current vice-president, Phelekezela Mphoko, a supporter of Grace Mugabe.

But Zanu-PF chief whip Lovemore Matuke told Reuters news agency that Mr Mnangagwa would be in office “within 48 hours”.

Speaking from an undisclosed location earlier on Tuesday, Mr Mnangagwa said he had fled abroad two weeks ago when he learned of a plot to kill him.

Robert Mugabe won elections during his 37 years in power, but over the past 15 years these were marred by violence against political opponents.

He presided over a deepening economic crisis in Zimbabwe, where people are on average 15% poorer now than they were in 1980.

However, Mr Mugabe was not forced out after decades in power by a popular mass movement but rather as a result of political splits within his Zanu-PF party.

The leader of the influential liberation war veterans – former allies of Mr Mugabe – said after the army takeover that Mr Mugabe was a “dictator”, who “as he became old, surrendered his court to a gang of thieves around his wife”.

BBC News Africa•November 21, 2017

• Zambian Police Service spokesman Danny Mwale said the tourists got too close
• Dutch and Belgian media said victims watching the elephants from a distance
• Dutchman reportedly died when he tried to rescue her from the elephant

A 64-year-old Dutch tourist and his 57-year-old Belgian friend have been trampled to death by an elephant while on safari in Zambia.

Zambian Police Service spokesman Danny Mwale said the Belgian woman and Dutch man were killed after getting too close to an elephant in a bid to take pictures.

But family members of the deceased denied the duo had put themselves in danger. They said they were looking at the giant mammals from a distance when one of the animals suddenly ran out of the herd towards them and trampled them both. According to reports in the Dutch and Belgian media, the Dutchman died when he tried to rescue his female friend from the attack. The family said she was ‘very familiar’ with elephants.

The shocking incident occurred at the Maramba River Lodge in Livingstone, Southern Province, Zambia. According to the Zambian police, both tourists had multiple injuries all over their bodies after being trampled by the elephant. The bodies of both tourists were brought to a mortuary in Livingstone.

Zambian authorities have previously warned tourists about the dangers of elephants. According to Zambian media, a week ago a security guard was trampled to death by an elephant in the country’s most popular city among tourists while he was on his way to work.

By Iain Burns For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 13 November 2017 | UPDATED: 13 November 2017

• Flight number MH17 will no longer be used for Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur
• Airline to instead use flight number MH19 as ‘mark of respect’
• Malaysia says ‘hopefully’ tourism figures ‘won’t be affected too much’

Malaysia Airline says it is retiring the flight number of the plane that was shot down over Ukraine. The carrier said in a statement that as of Friday, it will no longer use MH17 to identify any of its Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flights.

It said it is doing so ‘out of respect for our crew and passengers’ who were on board the MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Malaysia that was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday. The airline said the new flight number replacing MH17 would be MH19.

It also said there would be no changes to the frequency of its Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur service, and that it would continue to operate daily flights between the cities. Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.

The announcement by Malaysia Airlines comes as the country prepares itself for a drop in tourism in the wake of the tragedy. Malaysian Consulate General in Medan Ahmad Rozian Abdul Ghani compared the tourism situation after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in April.

He told Jakarta Post: ‘Only the number of Chinese tourists decreased when Malaysia Airlines MH370 first disappeared, but the number of tourists from other countries was largely unaffected. ‘However, we’re not sure about the effects of this incident [MH17]. ‘Hopefully, the number won’t be affected too much, if we base our predictions on the first incident.’

Tourism director for Malaysia in Medan Nor’Asikin Harun said she was ‘optimistic’ the number of tourists would reach 28 million by the end of 2014. She added: ‘There will be some effect from the incident but we will try our hardest and remain optimistic.’

By Travelmail Reporter
PUBLISHED:  20 July 2014 | UPDATED: 21 July 2014

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) – Wildlife rangers in Zimbabwe put the northern resort town of Kariba on full alert Wednesday after rogue lions mauled to death two people near a suburb there.

The National Parks and Wildlife Authority said fliers were being handed out in the town and volunteers were using a loudspeaker to caution townspeople on the dangers of lion attacks on the shores of Lake Kariba, a man-made hydroelectric dam popular for fishing and tourism.

It said one man escaped from a lion attack on Tuesday, but the woman with him was savaged to death. An arm and a few remnants of a second corpse were found by rangers hunting for the lions. The predatory animals had eaten most of one corpse but did not devour the body of the dead woman, rangers said.

The wildlife authority warned people against walking at night and crossing through thickets of bush where lions conceal themselves. It urged people in the area only to use wide and established roads.

Lion attacks are not common close to urban settlements. In the past, elephants have roamed into Kariba’s suburbs, causing several deaths in recent years. Victims were often heading home from late night taverns and bars.

Wednesday’s lion alert fliers also warned “beer drinkers to avoid moving at night on foot.” With the recent growth of outdoor Christian groups and religious and other tribal sects, the authority advised their followers to “stop going for secretive prayers in thick vegetation” in and around Kariba.

Rangers said the hunt for the rogue lions was continuing late Wednesday.

It is known in common conservation practice that lions that have eaten human prey will continue preying on people until they are hunted down and killed.

By Angus Shaw, Associated Press•March 6, 2013

GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) urged Ugandans and tourists on Friday to avoid entering caves with bats in the East African country after a Dutch woman died of Marburg hemorrhagic fever.

The unidentified 40-year-old woman died overnight in Leiden University Medical Centre, Dutch authorities said.

Health experts fear bats in caves and mines in western Uganda are a reservoir for the Marburg virus, a cousin of Ebola. Marburg hemorrhagic fever is a severe and highly fatal disease whose victims often bleed from multiple sites.

People who were in close contact with the victim, who visited two caves during a three-week trip to Uganda that ended on June 28, have been monitored daily but none have shown any symptoms, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said. “It is an isolated case of imported Marburg. People should not think about amending their travel plans to Uganda but should not go into caves with bats,” he said.

In a statement, Uganda’s Health Ministry advised people entering caves or mines in the western district of Kamwenge to take “maximum precaution not to get into close contact with the bats and non-human primates in the nearby forests”.

There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the contagious disease, spread through contact with blood, semen or other bodily fluids. At least 150 people died in an epidemic in Angola in 2004 and 2005, which followed an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo which cost 128 lives between 1998 and 2000, according to the WHO.

The Dutch woman was believed to have had direct contact with a fruit bat in the cave in the Maramagambo Forest, a popular tourist attraction between Queen Elizabeth Park and Kabale, but also visited another cave at Fort Portal, the WHO said.

“Marburg virus infection has been demonstrated by laboratory tests …,” the U.N. agency said in a statement. The woman suffered fever and chills four days after her return home and was admitted to Leiden hospital on July 2.

A local tour guide was the only other person on her cave visits and Dutch authorities have alerted the tour operator, WHO said. “No measures were taken with respect to the passengers on the flight from Uganda as the flight occurred four days before the onset of symptoms in the patient,” it said.

July 11, 2008 by Stephanie Nebehay;
Additional reporting by Niclas Mika in Amsterdam and Daniel Wallis in Nairobi; editing by Mariam Karouny