Shunned by the West, Zimbabwe Gets Lifeline With UAE Bet 

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s six years of wooing the United Arab Emirates has given a lifeline to a nation that the West has ostracized for a quarter century and is unable to repay its loans to China.

The wealthy Gulf state has overtaken China to become the resource-rich nation’s biggest export partner and since 2022 has plowed $1.4 billion into everything from gold trading to real estate. The steps are part of a wider effort by the UAE to build influence across Africa that’s seen it become the country that routinely pledges the most foreign direct investment into the continent.