Africa
ECONOMIC sanctions on Zimbabwe are helping push the southern African country to the brink of “man-made starvation,” UN rights expert Hilal Elver warned on Thursday.
Elver, who gave the warning called for the restrictions to be lifted. “I cannot stress enough the urgency of the situation.
“More than 60 per cent of the population of a country once seen as the breadbasket of Africa is now considered food-insecure,” Elver, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food.
She was speaking after a 10-day visit to Zimbabwe.
She attributed the crisis to poverty and unemployment, corruption, economic instability, hyperinflation, agricultural problems, natural disasters, and recurrent droughts, but also restrictive measures imposed by the United States and European Union.
“Based on what I have learned during the course of this mission, … these economic sanctions worsen the existing inequalities and do not have any actual impact on their supposed targets.
“I urge the termination of all sanctions,” Elver said
Western sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe over human rights violations during the rule of Robert Mugabe, who died in September, but also more recently in response to violence against protestors, civil society and opposition leaders.
Elver called on the Zimbabwean government to fulfil its human rights obligations, as well as reform the country’s agricultural and food system.
“If there is good management, it is possible to survive even during the drought periods,” she told journalists.
According to the World Food Programme, more than 5.5 million people in Zimbabwe are expected to lack adequate food supplies by the start of next year.
Elver said that she met people subsisting on just one portion of cooked maize a day. (dpa/NAN)
– Nov. 28, 2019 @ 17:59 GMT |
Tags: UN special rapporteur calls for end to Zimbabwe economic sanctions
