Day: May 18, 2026

The Lobito Corridor Opens Up

On By Dr. Y.In Great MomentsLeave a comment
A map of the Lobito Atlantic Railway project (Source: LobitoCorridor.org)

The Lobito Railway Project has now become a reality. The railway opened up with trains transporting cobalt and copper from the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast of Angola.

Recall that the Lobito Corridor was already in the pipeline and was a contract given to China before being reallocated to the US/European interests at the end of President Biden’s term. It has been built around the historic Benguela railway. As stated officially, it is designed to speed up mineral exports while reducing reliance on long-distance trucking, for which Nicholas Fourneir, CEO of Lobito Atlantic Railway, said rail transport offers major environmental benefits says in the Africanews article, “Having a train moving these goods is ten times more environmentally friendly than thousands of trucks.” 

The corridor links the port of Lobito in Angola, to the copperbelt in the DRC, and Zambia, and has been framed as a strategic alternative to Chinese dominance in African mining infrastructure, with interest also coming from Europe and the United States. It covers 1,300 km (810 miles).

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) mineral map (Source: Atlas du continent africain, Jeune Afrique et editions Jaguar, 2000)

At this point, it is good to remind everyone that the DRC has about 75% of the world’s coltan, the material at the heart of the mobile phone revolution; about 70% of the world’s cobalt reserves, over 30% of diamond, 10% of copper. The uranium used for the bombs that detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki came from the DRC. It is what some call a geological scandal! (The New Scramble for Africa, The Geological Scandal that is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), DRC and Zambia Sign Over Cobalt and Copper Resources Rights to the United States?, When Einstein Wrote to the US President about Congo for its Uranium).

Thus, create conflict in the DRC so as to get minerals dirt cheap, and then ship them faster now directly via the Atlantic Ocean and not the Indian ocean, which as we know is currently under tension with the Iran war. Isn’t it a win-win for those selling us “clean energy” and the likes?

To read more, check out the article at Africanews, African Pact, and The Conversation.