Although the ousting of Robert Mugabe from Zimbabwe’s prime ministership was a political success for the country, the state is still in crisis, with famine being a pertinent issue. Financial troubles combined with extreme weather has put the country in emergency.
The failed economic policies of new leader Mnangagwa has lead to the crisis but EU and US intervention could also be a hurting factor.
Sanctions tend to be a popular method of reciprocity for the United States and European Union, specifically on Zimbabwe. These sanctions are meant to punish Zimbabwe for human rights violations and corruption, but they could be pushing the violations even further. The Zimbabwe government claims that the sanctions are “hurting ordinary Zimbabweans” and preventing economic growth, but America claims that it is really just Zimbabwe’s economic policies and money corruption.
Should the US end sanctions to potentially spare the lives of a few million Zimbabwean’s or is it truly only Harare’s doing to push the country into economic and political turmoil?
This dominance move is an attempt to end the corruption in Zimbabwe, but will they actually change their ways or will the dominance continue to heart Zimbabwe’s people?
The agriculture problem is also a result of an attempt to combat racial inequity through Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s government redistributed around 25 million acres from white commercialized farmers to the landless black majority. Although the idea was to create economic equality between the black majority and the white minority, the immediate redistribution was a shock to the agriculture economy. The workforce is motivated to work, but do not have the resources or jobs to regularly work. The citizens are surviving meal to meal, usually just one a day.
Zimbabwe’s food crisis is also supported by an El Nino induced drought. Countries that go through natural disasters or weather crises are usually helped by MDC’s like the US or EU countries, but Zimbabwe does not have the neighbors or allies to receive aid.
Zimbabwe is also not in the national interest of the United States, geopolitically or economically. The only reason seeming reason for aid is purely as a humanitarian effort.