Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should either stand down or face the International Criminal Court.

Speaking to Dutch current affairs TV programme Nova, the Nobel peace prize winner said Mr Mugabe should stand trial at The Hague for “gross violations”.

When asked if the 84-year-old president should be removed by force, Tutu answered, “Yes, by force. If they say to him: step down, and he refuses, they must do so militarily.”

He said Mr Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain 28 years ago, had “destroyed a wonderful country”.

“A country that used to be a bread basket – it has now become a basket case,” said Tutu, an avid rights campaigner who was at the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

He told Nova, "I think now that the world must say: 'You have been responsible with your cohorts for gross violations, and you are going to face indictment in The Hague unless you step down'.”

Zimbabwe’s Health Minister David Parirenyatwa has admitted that the cholera outbreak afflicting the country is “an emergency” and appealed to the international community to help stock the country’s barely functioning hospitals with medicine, food and equipment.