For Washington, the Lobito Corridor rail project is meant to circumvent Chinese influence in Africa’s mineral supply chains.
Once up and running, the corridor will stretch 1,600km (1,000 miles) westward through mineral-rich Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to create a logistics corridor to the Atlantic port of Lobito in neighbouring Angola.
The United States sees it as a direct rival to the China-backed 1,860km Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara), which stretches eastward from…