Biden showcases US-funded Angolan rail hub, pledges $600M for another multi-country railway project

US president Joe Biden, on his visit to Angola to promote the $550 million US-backed Lobito Corridor railway project, has pledged another $600 million for a cross-continent rail corridor, telling regional leaders that “Africa has been left behind for much too long. But not anymore. Africa is the future.”
Biden used the third and final day of his visit to the southern African nation to showcase the Lobito Corridor railway that connects Congo’s mineral-rich regions to global markets, boosting trade with the West. The US and its Western allies are investing heavily to refurbish 1,300 kilometers of train lines connecting resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with copper-rich Zambia and the port of Lobito in Angola. “It’s a game changer,” Biden said about the project that aims to advance the US presence in a region rich in cobalt, copper and other critical minerals used in batteries for electric vehicles, electronic devices and clean energy technologies.
Biden said the US has so far invested a total of $4 billion along the Lobito Corridor. He was joined by the presidents of Angola, Zambia and DRC, whose president, Felix Tshisekedi, stated that the project could create tens of millions of jobs in his country, saying it will “change the trajectory of our region for good.” Washington has been promoting the Lobito Atlantic Railway upgrade, which has been co-funded by the European Union, the G7 and a Western-led private consortium and African banks, as a catalyst that it hopes will spark a new era of Western private sector investment in this part of Africa.