DAKAR,
Senegal – As shock continues over the fate of Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe, who vowed to rule until death but now finds himself in
military custody, here's a look at other larger-than-life African
leaders who spent years in power, then lost it.
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GAMBIA'S YAHYA JAMMEH
Jammeh
took power in 1994 in a bloodless coup, ruling the tiny West African
nation for more than 22 years. His regime was accused of overseeing
human rights abuses to silence opponents. In a stunning turn of events,
Gambians last year elected opposition coalition candidate Adama Barrow,
who was forced to wait in neighboring Senegal during a weeks-long
political standoff until Jammeh finally flew into exile in Equatorial
Guinea with his family and close aides. Jammeh has not been heard from
since.
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CONGO'S MOBUTU SESE SEKO
Mobutu seized
power in a military coup in 1965, five years after the vast,
mineral-rich nation gained independence from Belgium. His leadership had
the support of the United States and other Western governments. After a
legendary, corrupt dictatorship that lasted more than 30 years and left
the country then called Zaire in shambles, he was overthrown in 1997 by
Laurent Kabila. Mobutu took refuge in Morocco in 1997, where he died of
prostate cancer.
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UGANDA'S IDI AMIN DADA
Idi
Amin's eight-year rule was defined by the deaths of up to 300,000
people. He was famously mercurial, targeting certain ethnic groups but
also journalists, lawyers and others he saw as possible opposition. Yet
for more than 25 years he was never punished for bringing misery to the
once-prosperous country and never expressed remorse. He sought exile in
Saudi Arabia after his government was ousted in 1979. He died there in
2003 after being on life support and suffering from kidney failure.
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LIBYA'S MOAMMAR GADHAFI
At
age 27, Gadhafi emerged in 1969 as leading a group of officers who
overthrew the monarchy of King Idris. Gadhafi became a symbol of
anti-Western defiance in a Third World recently liberated from European
colonial rulers. He ruled with brutality during his nearly 42 years in
power, leaving behind an oil-rich nation drained of its institutions.
Rebels overwhelmed the capital in 2011 and drove him into hiding in
Sirte, where he was pulled from a drainage tunnel and killed. He became
the first ruler killed in the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the
region.
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LIBERIA'S CHARLES TAYLOR
Former warlord
Taylor was president between 1997 and 2003 and was accused of greed and
savagery. The second of the country's back-to-back civil wars, which
together killed more than 250,000 people, occurred under his rule. He
fled to Nigeria in 2003 as part of a deal to end the war, which he had
financed by trafficking in diamonds from neighboring Sierra Leone. He
was extradited to face charges of crimes against humanity at a
U.N.-supported Special Court for his role in fomenting conflict in
Sierra Leone. In 2012 he became the first former head of state convicted
by an international war crimes court since World War II. He is serving a
50-year sentence in Britain.
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BURKINA FASO'S BLAISE COMPAORE
Compaore
came to power after a bloody 1987 coup that killed the West African
nation's revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara. After ruling for more than
27 years, Compaore tried to amend the constitution to seek another term
in office. Faced with a popular uprising, he was forced to step down in
2014. He fled into exile and is now living as a citizen of Ivory Coast.
Human rights groups want him extradited to face justice for several
murders he is accused of during his reign, including that of Sankara.
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CHAD'S HISSENE HABRE
Habre's
rule from 1982 to 1990 was marked by human rights abuses that
eventually saw him forced from power by current President Idriss Deby.
For more than 20 years, Habre lived a life of luxurious exile in Senegal
until paramilitary police took him into custody. The Extraordinary
African Chambers was created by the African Union and Senegal to try him
for crimes committed during his presidency. In May, he was found guilty
of crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and sex crimes and was
sentenced to life in prison. It was the first conviction of a former
head of state by an African court for crimes against humanity.
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ETHIOPIA'S MENGISTU HAILE MARIAM
Mengistu
Haile Mariam ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991 and is blamed for the
killing of hundreds of students, intellectuals and politicians during
the "Red Terror" against supposed enemies of his Soviet-backed military
dictatorship. He fled a rebellion in 1991 and was taken in by Mugabe in
Zimbabwe. His army had helped to train Mugabe's guerrillas in their
struggle for independence from white rule. Mengistu was convicted in
absentia by an Ethiopian court in 2006 of genocide and later sentenced
to death, but Zimbabwe has refused to extradite him.
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