Link to Article: https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00080019.html
Zimbabwe is calling for sanctions that the United States has placed on them to be removed. Zimbabwe is saying that these sanctions must be removed by October 25th of next year. Zimbabwe has asked for the Southern African Development Community and for other countries in Africa to call for the United States to remove the sanctions. These sanctions were put in place by the United States back in 2002-2003. The purpose of these sanctions were because Zimbabwe was paying for state sponsored violence that threatened the security of the region. Some churches throughout Africa are calling for the sanctions to be lifted as well.
The sanctions that the United State put onto Zimbabwe were due to state spornsored terrorism and violence. This happened right after 9/11 so the American public were even more opposed to terrorism happening around the world than at othe rpoints throughout history. These sanctions were put in place instead of sending U.S. soldiers onto the ground to end the violence. This is most likely due to the fact the United States was preoccupied with conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq at the time of these sanctions being put in place. These sanctions have remained in place and were not taken away.
During 2002-2003 it was in the United States national interest to fight in the war against terrorism. The United States had troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq but did not have any in Zimbabwe since it was of lesser importance to the United States. Zimbabwe was causing issues within the region, but it mattered less than the Middle East to the United States since there were not the energy products that were necessary for the United States to function. This still caused the U.S. to impose sanctions as fighting terrorism was in the national interest even though fighting it in Zimbabwe consisted of only imposing sanctions.