US denounces detention, deportation of aid agency workers by Zimbabwean authorities

The United States has accused Zimbabwe of harassing, detaining and deporting several of its aid officials who had been in the country on an assessment mission.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said government officials and contractors had been “verbally and physically” intimidated by the Zimbabwean authorities, adding that the officials were in the southern African nation to “support civic participation, democratic institutions and human rights.

The Zimbabwean government has not reacted to the allegation by USAID.

In a statement, USAID’s administrator, Samantha Power, expressed worries after some of its members were subjected to “overnight detention, transportation in unsafe conditions, prolonged interrogation, seizure of and intrusion into personal electronic equipment.”

The US agency declared that it is working in Zimbabwe to help “strengthen health services, increase security, support economic resilience and promote democratic governance”.

Relations between Zimbabwe and the United States are at their lowest levels in recent times.

On Monday, the United States issued new sanctions against Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other senior government officials, accusing them of corruption and human rights violations.
The sanctions replaced existing ones imposed two decades earlier.

President Mnangagwa’s spokesperson denounced the sanctions as “hostile” and accused the US administration of “gratuitous slander”.