‘Modern plunderers’: Lobito Corridor plans bring fear, hesitation in DRC
Al Jazeera
Will the US-supported project be a hub for regional trade, or a new gateway to plunder DR Congo’s natural resources?
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – From the Port of Lobito in Angola, along Africa’s Atlantic coast, runs a 1,300km (800-mile) stretch of railway that passes through neighbouring Zambia and resource-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
In DRC, the Lobito Corridor links the mining provinces of Tanganyika, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba and Haut-Katanga – home to some of the world’s largest deposits of critical minerals like cobalt and copper, earning it a fair share of international attention in recent years.
In early December, on the sidelines of a visit to Angola, United States President Joe Biden held talks with some of his African counterparts on the Lobito infrastructure project – a multi-country agreement that aims to develop connectivity between the Atlantic and Indian oceans and provide speedier access to Africa’s minerals for the US and European markets.
But in Congolese towns and cities along the regions to be connected to the railway project, there are mixed feelings and simmering fears.
The DRC has the world’s largest cobalt reserves and its seventh-largest copper reserves.
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