For over two decades, US-led sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in retaliation to its land reforms have tolled the toiling farmers and workers of the southern African country.

Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi have already proclaimed a state of national disaster as a severe drought has damaged swathes of crop area. Millions across the region are facing severe hunger and livelihood losses, with smallholder farmers striving to cope with the climate crisis and colonial monoculture patterns of farming

The polls took place amid worsening conditions for majority of Zimbabweans, in an economy long beleaguered by unilateral sanctions. Zimbabwe was cut off from USD 100 billion in grants, loans, and other kinds of support from international and multilateral sources and further lost an estimated USD 42 billion in revenues between 2001 and 2019.