I have a hard time understanding why countries in the West who oppose Mugabe (as they should) because of his crimes against humanity and to express that place massive embargos blocking food and aid which is having a direct and prolific impact on the civilians causing even more suffering. It seems a bit ironic.
He is the one being opposed but he and his cronies are the only ones who are sitting pretty. He travels in his private jet, has beautiful homes, his wife will only wear Ferragamo shoes, etc ,etc. Sanctions like this do not affect the people in power. It is always the civilians who pay dearly and people like Mugabe don't care if his people are starving to death.
The west should be pouring food, aid, medicine to help fight the cholera outbreak, clothes, etc instead of blocking those goods in retaliation of their leader.
I am not defending Mugabe in the least - I hate this man for what he has done and supported. He has terrorized his own citizens causing widespread death and despair and he needs to be taken out of power but I just don't see the sanctions against the country to be an answer to the problem. It is not helping the citizens of Zimbabwe.
I have a good friend who is from Zim and her whole family still lives there and they are desperate and they want these sanctions to be lifted because THEY are the ones who are being punished and who are suffering. Mugabe has been in power a long time and the issues of starvation and disease only started reaching this crisis point after these "smart" sanctions were placed. She says her family was okay financially and never had shortages of food or medicine before the sanctions were put into place and now they are struggling every day. Her father was employed by a british company but since the west has been encouraging western countries to close down their companies, factories in Zim many of these job sources have closed leaving people who were once employed and comfortable with no job and no hopes of getting one because companies are pulling out in protest or simply because they are being pressured to do it and they don't want to look bad. This has affected the economy immensly and has caused a massive decline. Exports have dwindled to nil, men and women who had been employed for decades are now digging through the trash looking for food.