Mali leader ends 3-day Zimbabwe visit

President Robert Mugabe has hailed Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita for paying a historic visit to Zimbabwe and demonstrating that he will not bow down to pressure from the west.

Mugabe was speaking at the Harare International Airport when he was seeing off the Malian leader who was in the country on a three day state visit.

After three days of a fruitful state visit, President Keita left Harare on Thursday morning via Victoria Falls en route to Mali.

The two heads of state addressed the media at the Harare International Conference Centre.

President Mugabe, who is also the African Union and SADC chairman, described the visit as historic and the first by a Malian president, adding that the visit enabled the two leaders to interact.

President Keita who spoke in French admitted that he was overwhelmed when President Mugabe visited Bamako last month to oversee the signing of the Mali Peace Accord.

He revealed that a lot of young and influential people including a prominent writer Aminata Dramani Traore requested for an opportunity just to shake Mugabe's hand.

After the briefing, President Mugabe accompanied President Keita to the Ceremonial Dias for the national anthem before the Malian leader proceeded to inspect a guard of honour mounted by the Presidential Guard.  

President Keita, who was accompanied by his wife, then bade farewell to other government officials who included Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, several cabinet ministers, service chiefs and ambassadors accredited to Zimbabwe.