The British government is set to maintain targeted sanctions against top Zimbabwean government officials. The British will likely expand the sanctions list to include military top brass.
While speaking before the International Development Committee, UK minister of Africa Harriett Baldwin said that President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced that heads will roll for those implicated in the orgy of violence on citizens during the fuel protests in January but nothing has been done. Said Baldwin:
The process of rolling up the EU (European Union) sanctions has come up and the UK has been arguing that it is not yet time for us to allow those to expire. And I think since the recent developments … we think there might be a case for widening it to include further individuals.
We have been aware that the president has said that heads will roll, we haven’t seen any specific heads rolling, but that might be a good example of the kinds of people who could then be further extended and we could include in the sanctions regime.
More than 12 people were killed during a government crackdown on citizens during the January protests triggered by a sharp increase in the price of fuel.