Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has agreed to step down after 37 years in power.

The world’s oldest leader is due to officially announce his departure on live television tonight.

The news was greeted with ecstatic celebrations all over the country, with cars honking horns and crowds spontaneously taking to the streets of the capital.

Hordes of people danced, sang and shouted anti-Mugabe slogans in scenes that looked likely to overshadow yesterday’s protests on the streets of Harare tonight.

It came after MailOnline exclusively revealed that the elderly dictator was in a state of psychological collapse, crying for his dead son and late first wife, refusing to speak or wash and staging a desperate hunger strike.

Emmerson ‘Crocodile’ Mnangagwa, the former Vice President who was appointed the new leader of the Zanu-PF this morning, now looks destined to become Zimbabwe’s new president as early as tomorrow.

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Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was fired as leader of the ruling ZANU-PF party and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice president he fired earlier this month. Mnangagwa, the former state security chief, is in line to head an interim post-Mugabe unity government that will focus on rebuilding ties with the outside world and stabilising an economy in freefall.

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Mugabe met with Army officials on Sunday after being removed as leader of Zanu-PF. He and Army commander Constantino Chiwenga were expected to discuss Mugabe’s exit

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The frail dictator, pictured centre speaking to Army officials, has been staging a hunger strike over his confinement in house arrest and is refusing to take regular baths or speak

Ahead of his announcement, Mugabe broke down in tears and asked for his dead wife and son before meeting army chiefs on Sunday after being ousted as leader of Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF party, one of his aides has told MailOnline.

The frail 93-year-old has until noon local time on Monday to resign as president or impeachment proceedings will start, Zanu-PF said.

Mugabe was replaced by Mnangagwa after all ten Zimbabwean provinces passed no-confidence motions against the dictator two days earlier.

Ahead of his meeting with army officials to discuss his exit, Mugabe was ‘wailing profusely’ and saying that he wished he could speak to his dead wife, Sally Mugabe, and his late son, Michael Nhamodzenyika, who died from cerebral malaria in 1966 at the age of three.

‘He spends most of his time looking at an old photograph of Sally. It is terrible,’ the aide said of Mugabe’s first wife, who died of kidney failure in 1992.

In 1996, Mugabe went on to marry his current wife, ‘Gucci’ Grace, who was also expelled from her role as head of the Zanu-PF Women’s League ‘forever’.

The frail dictator has been staging a hunger strike over his confinement in house arrest and is refusing to take regular baths or speak, the aide added.

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Ahead of his meeting with army officials to discuss his exit, Mugabe was ‘wailing profusely’ and saying that he wished he could speak to his dead wife, Sally Mugabe, and his late son, Michael Nhamodzenyika

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Mugabe and Sally wed in 1961 and were together until Sally died of kidney failure in 1992. Sally is pictured above celebrating an election victory in Rhodesia in 1980.

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Ahead of his meeting with army officials to discuss his exit, Mugabe was ‘wailing profusely’ and saying that he wished he could speak to  Sally Mugabe, and his son, Michael Nhamodzenyika, who died from cerebral malaria in 1966 at three years old

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Mugabe’s hated wife, ‘Gucci’ Grace (pictured), has also been expelled from her role as head of the Zanu-PF Women’s League ‘forever’

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Leader of Zimbabwe’s war veterans association Christopher Mutsvangwa (center) reacts during the Zanu-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front) Central Committee meeting to recall Zimbabwe’s presidentat Reboert Mugabe the party’s headquarters in Harare

The only person who has managed to get through to him was the Catholic cleric Father Fidelis Mukonori, who is mediating between Mr Mugabe and the generals, the aide added.

Images of the meeting showed Mugabe, who wore a black suit, white shirt and red tie, with his hand to his head and deep in conversation with senior security officials, including army chief Constantino Chiwenga who led the military takeover earlier this week.

‘President Robert Mugabe this afternoon met with Zimbabwe Defence Forces Generals at State House,’ the Herald said on its Twitter feed, accompanied by photographs.

Mr Mnangagwa within touching distance of the presidency, delayed only by Mr Mugabe’s continued refusal to step down.

Following his resignation, Mugabe could live as an ‘elder statesman’ in Zimbabwe, or travel to a country where he has property, including South Africa, Dubai or Singapore.

While Mugabe has been removed from his role of Zanu-PF party leader, his title as Zimbabwean president remains.

Impeaching the president is the next step when Parliament resumes Tuesday, and lawmakers will ‘definitely’ put the process in motion, the main opposition’s parliamentary chief whip told The Associated Press.

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Zimbabwean War Veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa (center) greets other delegates ahead of Zanu-PF meeting to dismiss Mugabe from his role as party leader

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Delegates raise their fists as they replace Mugabe with Emmerson ‘Crocodile’ Mnangagwa as leader of the Zanu-PF ruling party

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Delegates celebrate after Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was dismissed as party leader at an extraordinary meeting of the ruling Zanu-PF’s central committee in Harare on Sunday

Article 96 of Zimbabwe’s constitution says that the president can resign if they submit a letter to the parliament speaker who must publicly announce it within 24 hours.

Resignation would be the fastest, simplest and least risky way for Mugabe to leave power – but he has resisted calls to step down since the crisis began.

During his first meeting on Thursday with the army general who led the military takeover, he bluntly refused to step aside.

News of Mugabe’s removal comes as MailOnline exclusively revealed that the elderly dictator had gone on hunger strike. One of his close family members confirmed that he was refusing to eat as a strategic ploy.

The frail 93-year-old Mugabe has not accepted any food since Saturday, the source revealed, as he continues to be held under house arrest at his Blue Roof mansion.

Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao said on Saturday that Mr Mugabe was ‘willing to die for what is correct’.

A Zanu-PF minister confirmed to MailOnline that Mr Mugabe is also refusing to speak as part of his days-long protest.

‘The old man has been trying a lot of various tricks since last night,’ the minister, who asked not to be named, said. ‘Hunger strikes, making threats and refusing to talk.’

Leader of Zimbabwe’s war veterans association Christopher Mutsvangwa said Mugabe should just resign from his role as president and leave the country.

‘We are going all the way,’ Mutsvangwa, who has led the campaign to oust Zimbabwe’s ruler of the last 37 years, said ‘He’s trying to bargain for a dignified exit but he should just smell the coffee.’

A day after huge crowds rallied peacefully in Harare for the 93-year-old Mugabe to go, members of Zanu-PF’s Central Committee stood, cheered and began to sing as the process of recalling Mugabe began. Meeting chair Obert Mpofu referred to Mugabe as ‘outgoing president’.

The meeting also was replacing Mugabe as party head with the vice president whose firing nearly two weeks ago led the military to step in, and recalling ‘forever’ the unpopular first lady as head of the women’s league.

Mnangagwa, who was fired by Mugabe two weeks ago, is expected to lead a new government. Without the military’s intervention, first lady Grace Mugabe likely would have replaced him as vice president and been in a position to succeed her husband.

One of Mnangagwa’s top aides told MailOnline that Mugabe was ‘like a bitter wife whose husband has filed divorce papers’.

Speaking outside the Zanu-PF committee meeting, he said: ‘Mugabe is not a problem for us now. He has no power. We are divorcing him and he’s getting zero alimony.’

The aide, who asked not to be named, added: ‘Whether he resigns today or tomorrow, he’s finished. We engineered everything very well and it went very smoothly.’

Mr Mnangagwa, who has just been appointed leader of Zanu-PF, is widely expected to become president when the 93-year-old Mr Mugabe is finally deposed.

The new leader’s cousin, Lucky Kunene, told MailOnline that when power has been fully transferred, Zimbabwe will ‘change from dictatorship to freedom’.

‘My cousin is feeling happy and satisfied that justice has been done,’ he said. ‘He has always been ready to serve Zimbabwe but the people have not been ready to accept him. That has all changed now.’

He pointed out that Mr Mnangagwa was the architect of Zimbabwe’s security apparatus and judicial system that brought down crime levels.

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While Mugabe has been removed from his role of Zanu-PF party leader, his title as Zimbabwean president remains. Pictured above, delegates attend a meeting on Sunday to dismiss Mugabe as leader

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Also at the meeting (delegates greeting one another pictured above), Mugabe’s  hated wife, ‘Gucci’ Grace, was expelled from her role as head of the Zanu-PF Women’s League

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Ahead of the meeting, Mutsvangwa (pictured), who has led the campaign to oust Zimbabwe’s ruler of the last 37 years said that Mugabe should just resign from his role as president and leave the country

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Members of Zanu-PF’s Central Committee stood, cheered and began to sing as the process of recalling Mugabe began. Meeting chair Obert Mpofu (pictured) referred to Mugabe as ‘outgoing president’

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Mr Mnangagwa, who has just been appointed leader of Zanu-PF, is widely expected to become president when the 93-year-old Mr Mugabe is finally deposed

‘He is from the progressive side of Zanu-PF and this is what our country needs,’ the cousin said. ‘He has lost elections twice and never questioned the result. He has shown that he respects democracy and the rule of law.’

Mr Kunene added: ‘My cousin places the economy first, not his own power. When he takes over, it will finally be the fulfilment of the people’s wishes for black empowerment, economic prosperity and democracy.’

Mr Mnangagwa’s aide added: ‘My only fear was that the fury of our people would be uncontrollable. But they were so magnanimous.

‘We felt like taking over the old man’s home and smashing it up, but instead we sang and danced.’

During Sunday’s meeting, chairman Obert Mpofu told the committee that they were meeting with ‘a heavy heart’ because Mugabe had served the country and contributed ‘many memorable achievements’.

But Mpofu said in his opening remarks that Mugabe’s wife ‘and close associates have taken advantage of his frail condition’ to loot national resources.

The army threatened to let a mob lynch Mugabe if he didn’t stand down, MailOnline revealed on Saturday. Now Mugabe has responded by rejecting all food.

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Zimbabweans sing and pray at a Christian peace and prayer rally in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe, on Sunday as part of a country-wide peace rally

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A day after huge crowds rallied peacefully in the capital for 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe to step down, Zimbabweans around the country attended Sunday church services and peace rallies, praying for the future of their country

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Zimbabweans join a peace rally an hour after Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was officially recalled as party leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party

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The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) has taken over control of running the country. Mugabe met with army chiefson Sunday to discuss his future

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People embrace as they pray and celebrate during a peace rally an hour after Mugabe was removed from his rold as Zanu-PF’s leader

‘If he dies under military custody, even by natural causes, then the army will be held responsible by the international community,’ the family member, who asked not to be named, said. ‘That is how the president is trying to put pressure on the army.’

The family member also said that Grace Mugabe was by her husband’s side at the Blue Roof mansion yesterday, and is thought to still be there today.

The meeting follows rumours that the dictator had fled the country after hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest against his rule.

Video footage from protests obtained exclusively by MailOnline showed angry crowds tearing down a huge billboard of Mugabe outside the headquarters of the ruling Zanu-PF party in central Harare.

The footage shows dramatic scenes that would have been unthinkable just a few days ago.

While Mugabe has been removed as party leader, his title as president of Zimbabwe remains.

He can only be removed from his presidency through resignation or impeachment, launched through a constitutional process.

‘What is left is just the technical detail of how he’s going to leave,’ former Zimbabwean finance minister Tendai Biti told Sky News. ‘Even if Zanu-PF does remove him – if they do have the power, which i doubt – that doesn’t amount to removing him as president of the country.