Two elephants slaughtered for Mugabe’s 91st birthday party

Zimbabwe’s controversial president Robert Mugabe is preparing for a lavish birthday party on Saturday at which 20,000 guests will feast on two young elephants. The first animal was shot on Thursday and has already been cut up and passed to party organisers, according to reports in the LA Times and other media. The second is yet to be killed and will be given to members of the community.

I think the farms we gave to people are too large. They can’t manage them.

In an interview marking his birthday, Mugabe admitted he blundered by giving ill-equipped black farmers vast tracts of farmland under his controversial land reforms.

Mr Mugabe, who turned 91 last week, was given the animals by a game farmer, who also donated a lion and a crocodile to be stuffed, and a herd of impala. Africa’s longest-serving leader is still viewed with respect by many on the continent after he led Zimbabwe to independence, however, he is subject to travel bans in the European Union and US. During his 27-year reign, he has crushed dissent and sparred frequently with the West over his human rights record, casting himself as a champion of post-colonial Africa. Mugabe’s violent seizure of white-owned farms triggered food shortages and hyper-inflation, while Europe and the United States imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe over elections seen as rigged.

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