Southern African leaders have urged the international community to end sanctions on Zimbabwe. The call came after a regional summit meeting on Tuesday. SADC said Zimbabwe had made enough progress in putting together a unity government hence the need to end all forms of sanctions against that country.
Zimbabwe‘s President Robert Mugabe and long-time foe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing government in February as part of a deal backed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to end a political crisis that followed disputed polls last year.
"The summit noted the progress made in the implementation of the global political agreement and called on the international community to remove all forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe," the SADC said in its final communique after a meeting in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Reuters.
"Considering the positive evolution of the situation, considering the progress that has been made, we believe it is now high time that the sanctions are lifted," Congolese President Joseph Kabila said.
Kabila, who took over as chairman of SADC during the summit, said if sanctions were not lifted, they would become an impediment to putting the political agreement into practice.
South African President Jacob Zuma had kicked off the meeting on Monday by asking Zimbabwe‘s leaders to end a row over a power-sharing pact that is holding up vital foreign aid to its battered economy.
Earlier, Congo said it was confident the meeting would culminate in a call for an end to the sanctions, which include travel bans and asset freezes against Mugabe and his inner circle.
