(AP) - Unilateral sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Western nations led by the United States have hit the economy hard and forced the country into a two decade long humanitarian crisis, according to a Zimbabwean activist and a former government official.
The country’s economic challenges, exacerbated by sanctions, have inflicted a myriad of real challenges on Zimbabweans, especially since the global COVID-19 pandemic.
On December 21, 2001, then U.S. President George W. Bush approved the ''Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act" in response to what it said was the Zimbabwean government's "economic mismanagement and undemocratic practices".
The act included a package of sanctions against Zimbabwe's government. Calvern Chitsunge, co-founder and chairperson of a Zimbabwean anti-sanctions lobby group Broad Alliance Against Sanctions (BAAS), told China Central Television (CCTV) that Zimbabwe has suffered under the imposition of Western unilateral sanctions, which have been hugely detrimental to the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.
"We have seen deterioration, be it in the health care sector, we have seen our infrastructure dilapidation. We have seen even the education sector is also affected. Our industries are affected. Even the monetary system that we are witnessing right now, is highly affected by these illegal sanctions. Everyone is under sanction, everyone is sanctioned," said Calvern Chitsunge, co-founder and chairperson of the Zimbabwean anti-sanctions lobby group Broad Alliance Against Sanctions (BAAS).
Describing the sanctions as a weapon of mass destruction, Obert Gutu, a member of Zimbabwe's National Peace and Reconciliation Commission and former deputy minister of justice and legal affairs, said Zimbabwe has failed to build new roads, hospitals, clinics or even rehabilitate old infrastructure because it "has been denied access to affordable finance by international institutions."
"It's like giving somebody a slow poison, giving them slow poison in their tea and in their food," said Gutu.