Zimbabwe Unsure It Will Receive COVID-19 Vaccines From G7 Due To Sanctions - Ambassador

Sumaira FH Published June 18, 2021 | 12:57 PM

Zimbabwe is unsure if it will receive a single dose of the one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses pledged by G7 leaders at last week's summit given that the African country is still subject to economic sanctions imposed by Western nations, Mike Nicholas Sango, Zimbabwe's ambassador in Moscow, told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th June, 2021) Zimbabwe is unsure if it will receive a single dose of the one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses pledged by G7 leaders at last week's summit given that the African country is still subject to economic sanctions imposed by Western nations, Mike Nicholas Sango, Zimbabwe's ambassador in Moscow, told Sputnik.

"They have pledged one billion vaccines to developing countries, and because of the selective nature of those countries ... we are not even sure that they will consider Zimbabwe as a beneficiary. Maybe, if it goes through the African Union or the World Health Organization, maybe, but still our government will look at the efficacy of those vaccines and see if they are suitable for our people, or not," Sango stated.

The Zimbabwean government has issued emergency use approval to four COVID-19 vaccines: Russia's Sputnik V, China's Sinovac and Sinopharm, and India's Covaxin, and Sango praised these three countries for coming to Zimbabwe's aid.

"So far, the only assistance has come from three countries: from Russia, from China, and from India. Nobody else has provided any support," the ambassador stated.

The United States, European Union, and United Kingdom have imposed a series of financial sanctions on Zimbabwe over the course of the last two decades on the basis of alleged human rights violations.

Russia's diamond mining giant Alrosa, which has established a joint venture enterprise in Zimbabwe, facilitated the delivery of 25,000 Sputnik V doses that arrived in the African country in early June, and pledged another 25,000 by the end of the month.

At last weekend's G7 summit in the United Kingdom, leaders announced that they would commit to offering a further one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to lower-income countries over the next year in order to speed up the recovery from the pandemic.