The Council of the EU said on Friday that it had prolonged for another year the restrictive measures imposed against Zimbabwe in light of the human right situation there.
"The Council today renewed its restrictive measures in view of the situation in Zimbabwe for a further year, until 20 February 2025," the statement read.
The measures imposed by the EU in 2011 include an embargo on arms and equipment that "might be used for internal repression," as well as a freeze of assets of the country's state-owned arms manufacturing company Zimbabwe Defence Industries, the council said. There have been no sanctioned individuals on the list since February 2022, it added.
The EU continues to monitor the human rights situation in Zimbabwe and is ready to tweak the restrictions should the country change its internal policy, the statement read.
Zimbabwe has been under EU sanctions since February 2002 following an assessment by the Council that the Zimbabwean government was engaged in serious violations of human rights as well as violations of the freedom of opinion, association and peaceful assembly. The scope of sanctions has changed over the years, with the latest directive out in 2011, but the arms embargo has been in place since 2022.
In late October of last year, the country's Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said that Zimbabwe had lost $150 billion due to the freezing of assets, the cessation of donor support and the blocking of business opportunities caused by sanctions.
The official noted that this situation had hindered the country's economic growth and forced the GDP to decline significantly over the past two decades.
Moreover, the SADC emphasized in its report on the effects of sanctions on Zimbabwe that the punitive measures taken by the United States and the European Union are "illegal and unjustified" because they "violate Article 41 of the United Nations Charter, which states that sanctions can only be decided on by the UN Security Council." The latter failed to implement sanctions against the African state due to the opposition of a draft resolution by two permanent members of the council, namely China and Russia.