The U.S. has announced plans to increase its funding to Zimbabwe, U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. has disclosed.
Despite a recent diplomatic disagreement between Washington and Harare, where the Trump administration were maintaining sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace for rights violations and electoral fraud, Thomas said the U.S. government would maintain, and even increase, HIV funding levels to Zimbabwe.
During the disagreement, Mugabe’s government argued that the West had been targeting Zimbabwe for embarking on land reforms which resulted in the displacement of thousands of white commercial farmers and their employees in 2000.
With the dispute set aside, Thomas was in high spirits when he announced the plans at the Harare International Festival of the Arts.
“We are very heartened that our Congress just passed the budget within the last few days and our President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PERFAR) funding is remaining constant. In fact it will likely grow to almost $150 million next year,” said Thomas.
“This means we are able to continue saving lives through PEPFAR as well as feed about 2.4 million people a day in Zimbabwe through other assistance programmes.”
Donald Trump took over from Barack Obama following a shock-election in 2016, and had committed to cutting foreign aid in favour of spending on the American people.
Since 2006, PEPFAR has provided around $800m to Zimbabwe for HIV interventions.
