*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed

A Zimbabwe themed puzzle from Eimi, with the definition for Robert Mugabe (”one destroying his country”) only controversial if you’re one of Mugabe’s ruling circle. There was a fair amount of obscure stuff (snib, snoek and obeah were all new to me), but made a little easier if you spotted that the sides of the grid spelled Rhodesia and Zimbabwe respectively.

Is Rufus getting harder? I had some trouble with this - particularly in the top left corner.
Lots of CDs and DDs (Cryptic Definitions and Double Defs) and not many anagrams (I can only see 3!) meant it was tricky for me.

I’m not fully clear about several here: Across: 9, 11, 12 16 and Down: 1

Across
9 ONE AND ALL Has to be from the crossing letters, and Whereas “Combination of extremes” is a reasonable Cryptic Def., I feel “Unexceptional” is a perverse definition. To me “One and all” simply means “everybody” and if pushed I might think of “One for all and all for one” which means quite the reverse of unexceptional … Full Clue:
Unexceptional combination of extremes (3,3,3)
Later edit: Dan points out unexceptional can be taken as “without exception”
10 ACUTE DD I agree with Andrew: Elegant misdirection
11 TOOK OUT One half of the (assumed) DD is fine “removed” but I fail to understand how it means dated. Full clue:
Dated and removed (4,3)
Dated as in “take out (to dinner)”  Good grief how didn’t I see that.  Thanks Shirley
12 YANKEES Given Y-N-E-S what else could it be? But I didn’t know the (assumed) betting meaning of this (assumed) DD. Full clue:
Statesmen making bets (7)
See Linxit’s comment for the betting definition
13 OBITS Those kind of newspaper dealines
14 CHOCOLATE That kind of snack bar
16 HEALTH INSURANCE Seeking help to explain this one. Full clue:
Is it of any benefit to us? Well, no! (6,9)
Later edit: Health Insurance is only of benefit if one is unwell, clue to be read as
“Is it of any benefit to us well?  No!”
BUPA may disagree with this as they now have “Wellness” clinics
19 RAMILLIES (I’M)< in RALLIES A battle in the napoleonic wars I think
21 CRANE DD  I didn’t find this such a good clue as the “prison” surface was so obvious I rejected it and thought down the bird line early on
22 REGATTA (A TARGET)* One of the few anagrams and a nice one.
23 HABITAT A BIT inside HAT First I got (which shows how little progress I made on a first pass)

Down
1 DON’T BOTHER Another requiring more explanation. I can see the Def (doesn’t matter) and BOTH from pair and ER from hestitates but how are we supposed to deduce the DON’T ? Full clue:
It doesn’t matter if just one of the pair hesitates (4,6)
Later edit: Possibly to be read as “Don’t both hesitate” Thanks again Dan
3 ANNOYS Homophone “A noise”
4 DAFT D[ead] AFT
7 EUREKA Famous exclamation by Archimedes in his bath
8 LEES Homophone “Leas”
15 ELEMENTARY (MERELY NEAT)*
17 TELLTALE CD Ref. William Tell My favourite clue:
Revealing story of Swiss resistance? (8)
20 MUGGER Nice DD
21 COBWEB Another Nice DD
23 HOPE HOP E

Note: This blog originally a Comment posted approx. 13:40 Shifted to main blog entry approx. 14:00
Some additions and edits approx. 14:20