Currently under various levels of pre/re-construction, two separate transport corridors—the Lobito Corridor project, under negotiation by the U.S., and the Tazara railroad (Tanzania-Zambia Railroad), being refurbished by China—could, if linked, become the first truly Transcontinental Railroad on the African continent. Although the two projects are being approached separately, admittedly from the competing, geopolitical standpoint, the chance for this “win-win” for the continent and humanity should not be underestimated.
In detail, the Lobito Corridor project comprises the 1,344 km colonial-era Benguela Railway, which runs from Lobito, Angola, on the Atlantic Ocean, eastward to Dolilo, on the southwestern border of the D.R. Congo, with the addition of an 800 km spur into the Copperbelt Province of north-central Zambia. The Tazara (Tanzania-Zambia Railroad), which runs westward from Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania, on the Indian Ocean, to Kapiri Mposhi in central Zambia., a distance of 1,860 km. The distance from Kitwe, the capital of the Copperbelt Providence, to Kapiri Mposhi is less than 200 km.
Originally built by China in 1975, the Tazara, also called the Freedom Railroad, is due to be upgraded to SGR standards, a project announced in August 2022, and towards which China confirmed on Feb. 7 that they had committed $1 billion, according to ConstructAfrica. The plan includes the construction of a new 192 km “greenfield” spur from central Zambia to the port city of Mpulungu on Lake Tanganyika, effectively extending the corridor northward (on the lake) an additional 600 km.
After China’s original announcement in 2022, the U.S. apparently decided it didn’t want all that precious copper going eastward, especially when its new-found “ally” of Angola already had a railroad spanning over half the distance, and only required an extension from the Angola border into the copper region to funnel off all the riches to the west. As an unspoken bonus, the Benguela railroad continues eastward inside the D.R. Congo, terminating at the southeastern Katanga Province, itself brimming with copper and cobalt.