After withering criticism for naming Zimbabwe’s leader, Robert Mugabe, as a “goodwill ambassador,” the World Health Organization announced on Sunday that it had rescinded the appointment. “I have listened carefully to all who have expressed their concerns and heard the different issues that they have raised,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director general, said in a statement. He also claimed the Zimbabwean leader — whose decades-long rule has been characterized by authoritarianism and corruption — would focus on the issue of noncommunicable diseases in Africa. Speaking at a conference in Uruguay, Ghebreyesus expressed hope that Mugabe would “influence his peers in his region to prioritize [non-communicable diseases],” including heart attacks, cancer and diabetes. The global condemnation of this choice was swift and staggering.

Source: Huffington Post October 23, 2017 09:45 UTC