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The move by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide debt service relief to 25 member countries to help them fight Covid-19, resonates well with calls for the removal of Western sanctions on developing economies.

Last month, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres in a letter to G-20 countries called for rolling back international sanctions on countries, amid the outbreak of coronavirus.

Foreign Policy reported Mr Guterres as saying sanctions jeopardise health risks for millions of people and weaken the global effort to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Affected countries include Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.

Also, in April, the African Union Bureau of Heads of States and Governments again called for the immediate lifting of economic sanctions on Zimbabwe and Sudan to assist the two countries in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Monday, the IMF executive board approved an immediate debt service relief to 25 member countries as part of measures to alleviate the devastating economic impact of the deadly coronavirus.

IMF managing director, Ms Kristalina Georgieva, announced the historic debt relief decision in a statement, saying: “Today, I am pleased to say that our executive board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

However, Zimbabwe is not in the list of beneficiary countries having cleared its US$108 million arrears in 2016 and is now working on clearing about US$2.2 billion owed to the World Bank and African Development Bank.

According to Ms Georgieva’s statement, the countries that will receive debt service relief are: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, DRC, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo, and Yemen.

The developing world, and Africa in particular, will not be spared by the Covid-19 pandemic which has already ravaged some great powers.

It is, therefore, paramount that the developed world, especially the West, does the honourable thing — lift all economic sanctions against targeted countries.
The economies of these countries have already been destroyed by these sanctions and now the Covid-19 threat points to further destruction.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Sibusiso Moyo last year presented a paper to Cabinet, indicating Zimbabwe lost about US$98 billion due to the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the United States and the European Union.

It is also believed that Zimbabwe lost bilateral donor support estimated at US$4,5 billion annually, since 2001. A total of US$12 billion in loans from the IMF, the World Bank and African Development Bank as well as commercial loans worth US$18 billion were also lost on account of the sanctions.

It is without doubt that Zimbabwe can never be fully ready to deal with Covid-19 as long as these sanctions — which were never endorsed by the UN, making them illegal —are still in effect.

The West must now live up to its liberal values and protect the lives of innocent civilians by removing their sanctions.