UN body appoints Zimbabwean despot to help tackle non-communicable diseases, despite dire health crisis under his ruleThe UK government has criticised the World Health Organization’s decision to appoint Robert Mugabe as a “goodwill ambassador”, calling the move “surprising and disappointing”. Tedros said he was “honoured” to announce that Mugabe had agreed to serve as a goodwill ambassador on non-communicable diseases for Africa. “Given Mugabe’s appalling human rights record, calling him a goodwill ambassador for anything embarrasses WHO and Dr Tedros,” Iain Levine, programme director at Human Rights Watch, said on Twitter. “The Zimbabwe health delivery system is in a shambolic state, it is an insult,” the spokesman Obert Gutu said. According to WHO, non-communicable diseases are by far the leading cause of death in the world, killing more than 36 million people each year.

Source: The Guardian October 21, 2017 06:22 UTC