Zimbabwe ‘failed to protect lion from vandals’

Zimbabweans failed in their responsibility to protect a popular lion named Cecil that was killed by an American in an allegedly illegal hunt, President Robert Mugabe said yesterday.

In his first public comments about the lion, Mugabe said Zimbabweans should protect their natural resources from what he called foreign vandals.

“All the natural resources are yours. Even Cecil the lion is yours. He is dead but yours to protect, and you failed to protect him,” Mugabe said in a televised speech marking Heroes’ Day, a national holiday honouring fighters who died in the war to end white minority rule.