The new head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) is rethinking a plan to appoint Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s original proposal sparked an outcry. He had previously praised Zimbabwe for its commitment to public health.
But Mr Mugabe’s critics say Zimbabwe’s health care system has collapsed under his 30-year regime, with staff often going without pay while medicines are in short supply.
It led Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Doug Coltart to take to Twitter to question how WHO felt about having “a Goodwill Ambassador who destroyed the health sector in his country”.