Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the west and southwest, Zambia to the northwest, and Mozambique to the east and northeast.
The Capital and largest city is Harare.
Zimbabwe has 16 official languages,with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most commonly used.
The president was Robert Mugabe from 1987 to 2017. On November 15, 2017, in the wake of over a year of protests against his government, as well as Zimbabwe's rapidly declining economy, Mugabe was placed under house arrest by the country's national army in a coup d'état.
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Wednesday,11.15.17: Zimbabwe is under military control after the army seizes power from Mugabe. Zimbabwe's military leaders have seized control of the impoverished southern African nation, placing longtime leader Robert Mugabe under house arrest and deploying armored vehicles to the streets of the capital, Harare.
Mugabe, 93, the world's oldest living leader, was unable to leave his home, according to Jacob Zuma, the President of neighboring South Africa. Troops were reportedly stationed at Zimbabwe's Parliament and the presidential palace.
President Robert Mugabe and his family are "safe and sound," according to Zimbabwe's military — but his decades in power are seemingly at an end, after Mugabe, 93, was forcefully pushed aside. Both the ruling party and the military insist there was no coup.
"We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice," the Zimbabwe Defense Forces said on Wednesday, adding, "As soon as we have accomplished our mission we expect that the situation will return to normalcy." But it will be a new normal for Zimbabwe, which has been led by Mugabe since the 1980s.
11.16.17 Update: Mugabe's exit is 'a done deal' but Zimbabwe is still in limbo. He died 9.6.2019 at the age of 95.
