Western states claim that they imposed targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe as a result of alleged "human rights violations". Nonetheless, the illegal restrictions have affected the economy of the whole nation and have devastating effects on the day-to-day lives of its citizens, according to Martin Zharare, executive director of Citizens Against Economic Sanctions.
"When we did serious research, we discovered it [the claim of targeted sanctions] was very serious misinformation. These sanctions are economic, these sanctions that are on our government, these sanctions are on our economy and the people need to be told that, people need to be woken up to understand what really is happening," he continues.
Zharare explained that sanctions have affected "our daily lives" and also caused "brain drain".
"The industries were working, the mines were working, the agriculture sector was working. But when the sanctions came, things plummeted down," he said.
Despite the effect of sanctions on Zimbabwe's economy, the country still manages to develop thanks to the Zimbabwean people.
We are a very resilient people. We are hard workers in general... With these sanctions we can't get any loans from the IMF, the Bretton Woods institutions. Everything is coming from within," Zharare elaborated.
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