History
The central axis of the Lobito Corridor, the Benguela railway, was originally built in the first half of the 20th century to connect Central Africa to the coast, but its service was interrupted in the later half of the century due to the destruction caused by the Angolan Civil War. [5] [6] After the end of the war, reconstruction began in 2006 under an agreement between Angola and China financed by a $2 billion loan from Beijing. The official reopening of the Angolan section to the border in Luau took place in 2015 with a joint ceremony between Angola, the DRC, and Zambia. [5] [6]
In 2022, Angola awarded the concession for its section to the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium, comprising Mota-Engil, Trafigura and Belgian railway operator Vecturis. [7]
In October 2023, the European Union and the United States of America signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Angola, Zambia and the DRC for a partnership regarding the Lobito Corridor. [8] In August 2024, the first shipment of copper from the DRC reached the US after travelling through the corridor towards the Port of Lobito, marking a milestone in its revival as a key logistics route. [9] The project is being backed by major US and EU investments, including a €116 million EU Global Gateway package and hundreds of millions from the US-initiated G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI). [10]
Geopolitical relevance
The DRC and Zambia hold vast deposits of critical raw materials such as copper, cobalt, zinc, iron and uranium. As of December 2025, exploitation of these resources is dominated by foreign companies, particularly from China. [11] [12] Much of the raw materials are exported via ports on Africa's eastern and southern coasts: Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Beira in Mozambique and Durban in South Africa. Transportation relies heavily on trucks, with roundtrip journeys taking several weeks. The railway lines of the Lobito Corridor, once completed, would provide a quicker, cheaper and more reliable export route. [13]
That this route is oriented towards the Atlantic Ocean, i.e. towards the US and Europe, makes it particularly attractive to these actors. By supporting a westward-oriented export corridor, the US and EU are hoping to gain easier access to critical raw materials and to diminish the Chinese dominance in the region's mining sector. [13] [14]
Through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China has also made significant contributions to infrastructure development in the region. [13] The G7 PGI and the EU's Global Gateway, the initiatives through which the Lobito Corridor is supported, are viewed as deliberate Western counters to the BRI. [15] [16] The European Commission describes the Lobito Corridor as a "key Global Gateway flagship." [17]
In light of this, in November 2025, China signed a $1.4 billion agreement with Zambia and Tanzania for the modernisation of the competing TAZARA Railway, linking Zambia's Copperbelt to Tanzania's Dar es Salaam port. [18] [19]
The two railway lines could potentially be linked up. [20] [21] [22] Joining the Lobito Corridor to the TAZARA would create a trans-continental railway from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.
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Lobito 
Ndola 
Democratic Republic of the Congo