Led by Auxilia Mnangagwa, the president's wife, several thousand Zimbabweans demonstrated on Friday, October 25, against the sanctions imposed on their country by Westerners. In Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, a country plagued by a catastrophic economic crisis, protesters walked the streets of the city behind banners such as "Sanctions are a crime against humanity."

The European Union (EU) and the United States have maintained sanctions against Zimbabwe for nearly 20 years, mainly targeting the family and relatives of former President Robert Mugabe, accused of electoral fraud. And today the country needs foreign investment to get out of it, and therefore a lifting of sanctions.

"That's enough !"

Emmerson Mnangagwa, Robert Mugabe's successor after a coup by the army and the ruling party two years ago, has been trying since then to lift the sanctions.

The EU has recently cut them back and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has resumed talks with Harare. But the United States extended in March 2019 the sanctions against Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former cacique of his regime, and a hundred Zimbabwean personalities or companies.

In front of the demonstrators gathered in a largely empty stage of the city, the president Mnangagwa renewed, Friday, his call to the Westerners. "That's enough!" He said. "Remove these sanctions now, [...] we know perfectly well that these sanctions are neither intelligent nor targeted", he continued, explaining that "their impact on [our] daily lives is enormous and their consequences terrible" .

"We have no equipment or medicine in our hospitals," said one of the protesters, Themba Ndebele. "Today, we want to make sure our voices can be heard."

Catastrophic management

"Our sanctions are not responsible for the tragic bankruptcy of Zimbabwe," the US ambassador to Harare, Brian Nichols, defended on social media. "The responsibility lies with the catastrophic management of those who run it and the abuses of the government against its own citizens."

The EU recalled that its measures only targeted arms sales and the Mugabe couple. "They can be changed at any time, as soon as Zimbabwe shows that the conditions that imposed them have changed," said his embassy in Harare on Friday.

The main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has joined the West in denouncing the bankruptcy of the regime. "Zimbabwe is there because it is run by selfish and corrupt men," he said.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), of which Zimbabwe is a part, has supported Harare by demanding the end of sanctions.

"Mnangagwa has made significant efforts (...) to revive the economy," said Zambian President Edgar Lungu. "These ongoing and binding sanctions prevent the country from making significant progress."

With AFP