The Zimbabwean High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr. Kufa Edward Chinoza, has appealed to President Akufo-Addo to champion the cause to have the sanctions imposed on his country by the West lifted.
He was optimistic that Ghana will lead this campaign in the ECOWAS region, adding, “Ghana is no doubt noted with a big voice in supporting the removal of the sanctions on our country. My President and the government of Zimbabwe appreciate your support and we know because of our relations, that support will continue.”
Mr. Kufa Edward Chinoza said this when he presented letters of Credentials to President Akufo-Addo at Jubilee House.
The EU and the United States imposed financial and travel bans on ZANU-PF and top military figures for alleged human rights abuses and electoral fraud.
The government says the measures are punishment for its seizures of white-owned farms.
ZANU-PF supporters condemn the sanctions while the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change says they are not the cause of the country’s economic crisis.
The regional Southern African Development Community has rallied behind Zimbabwe’s call for an end to sanctions.
While the government ran documentaries and articles in the official press criticizing sanctions, the U.S. and EU embassies took to social media to rebut the official narrative.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has described Western sanctions as a “cancer” sapping the economy, and his supporters denounced the measures during marches held around the country.
Mnangagwa has so far failed to unify the country since taking over from the late Robert Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup in 2017. Hopes of a swift recovery have faded as the economy struggles to exit its deepest crisis in a decade.
Mnangagwa, like Mugabe, blames the sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union since 2001 for the economic ills and says they are intended to remove his party from power.
Source: Kofi Atakora
