The United States targeted Mnangagwa, his wife and senior government officials in a review of the sanctions imposed in 2003.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, his wife and top government officials for alleged involvement in corruption and human rights abuses.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions — targeting three companies and 11 individuals, including Mnangagwa, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, and retired Brigadier General Walter Tapfumani — after reviewing the sanctions program. which was ongoing since 2003. .
Except for those listed on Monday, Zimbabwe will see the lifting of sanctions under US sanctions earlier.
“The changes we are making today are meant to make clear what has always been true: our sanctions are not intended to target the people of Zimbabwe,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Willie Ademu.
“We are reiterating our sanctions on clear and specific targets: President Mnangagwa’s criminal network of government officials and businessmen who are most responsible for corruption or human rights abuses against the people of Zimbabwe,” he said. .
Mnangagwa is accused of protecting gold and diamond traffickers who operate in Zimbabwe and instructing government officials to facilitate the sale of gold and diamonds in illegal markets, and bribes in exchange for his services. are taking
An Al Jazeera investigation last year found that Zimbabwe’s government was using smuggling gangs to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold, helping to cushion the impact of the sanctions. Gold is the country’s largest export.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken said the new measures were part of a “stronger, more targeted sanctions policy” on Zimbabwe and expressed concern over “serious cases of corruption and human rights abuses”.
“Key individuals, including members of the Zimbabwean government, bear responsibility for these actions, including the looting of public coffers that are robbing the resources of the Zimbabwean people,” Blanken said in a statement.
“Several cases of kidnapping, physical abuse and illegal killings have left the citizens in fear.
‘This is great’
Previous restrictions were imposed after a campaign to forcibly seize land from white farmers.
The Zimbabwean government welcomed the end of these measures.
“Well, it’s huge,” government spokesman Nick Mangwana wrote on X, in what he called “great evidence” of Mnangagwa’s foreign policy.
“That said, as long as our president is under sanctions, Zimbabwe is under illegal sanctions, as long as members of the First Family are under sanctions, Zimbabwe is under illegal sanctions, and as long as the senior leadership is under sanctions, we are all under sanctions. . ” he added.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller responded: “It’s rare that you see a government say that sanctions against a sitting president are a victory for the government.”
In Zimbabwe’s neighbor Zambia, President Hikande Hichilema praised US President Joe Biden for ending the 2003 program.
“This is more proof that Pres. Biden listens to his African partners. We hope that this is an opportunity for a new direction for Zimbabwe and regional engagement,” Hichilema wrote on X.
Mnangagwa, whose party has been in power for more than four decades, was declared the winner in an election last August that international observers said fell short of democratic standards.
Mnangagwa ousted an ailing Robert Mugabe from office in 2017. Mugabe died two years later at the age of 95.