Zimbabwe’s Mugabe: Obama Is Afraid of Me

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has claimed the reason he is not invited to Western summits is because Barack Obama is afraid of him. “It’s your support which enables me with my small frame to instill fear in the likes of Obama,” the 90-year-old, who has been widely censured for human rights abuses, told an audience of supporters. “In the past, when we attended these meetings, Western leaders would disappear once they knew that I was around.” The United States has enforced a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe for the past 12 years—long before Obama took office. Mugabe was one of the few African leaders not invited to the U.S.-Africa summit last month in Washington, D.C.