A new study published in the respected medical journal The Lancet has found that international sanctions “have substantial adverse effects on public health, with a death toll similar to wars”.

A large number of the deaths due to sanctions were attributed to malnutrition and decreased access to healthcare, with a disproportionate impact on children and the elderly, the report says. 

The study, by US researchers, analysed the impact of sanctions on 152 countries between 1971 and 2021. Interestingly, the research found “the strongest effects for unilateral, economic and US sanctions whereas (we) found no statistical evidence of an effect for UN sanctions”. 

The study attributed this to the widespread use of the US dollar and Euro in international finance and the extraterritorial application of sanctions. 

The study “estimated that unilateral sanctions were associated with an annual toll of 564,258 deaths, similar to the global mortality burden associated with armed conflict”. 

The study’s central estimate found that unilateral sanctions imposed by the US and EU since 1970 are associated with 38 million deaths. 

The deaths were not from direct violence, but were linked to factors like malnutrition, infectious disease and lack of access to medicine, which are consequences of economic hardship caused by sanctions. 

Children and the elderly were the most vulnerable groups, with the study finding that over half of the victims were children and the elderly.