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Freeman Razemba Senior Reporter
A local civil society organisation, Coalition Against Sanctions in Zimbabwe, on Friday met with officials at the United States Embassy in Harare were they condemned the extension of sanctions against Zimbabwe by the European Union saying the embargo was causing untold suffering to ordinary citizens.

In February, the EU Council extended the sanctions saying they would continue to monitor the situation in the country.

Coalition Against Sanctions chairman Cde Jimayi Muduvuri, secretary-general Dr Davison Gomo and other officials met with the staff at the embassy where they expressed their wish to have the sanctions removed.

In an interview, Cde Muduvuri said they had a fruitful meeting with the officials. “We discussed a lot of issues concerning these sanctions against Zimbabwe and we highlighted to them that they were causing untold suffering among the people and that they should be removed,” he said.

He said the US should at least suspend the sanctions and give Government a chance to improve the economy and the people’s livelihoods.

“From what I see, it seems that these people are willing to work with Zimbabwe better than any other country. We will continue to engage them and map the way forward for our country,” he said.

He said during the coming weeks they were going to engage officials from the EU on the same agenda.

Dr Gomo also said their major concern was the effect and impact of sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe. “Our intention was to make it clear to the Americans that the sanctions were not welcome and that sanctions were a very blunt tool used obviously to try and encourage the sanctioned country to fall in line with the expectations of the sanctioner. That was unnecessary for Zimbabwe,” he said.

He said from his observations, the Americans were somehow still stuck with the events that happened in the past which should now be in the dustbin during this Second Republic were President Mnangagwa’s Government is making re-engagement efforts.