Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – From the Port of Lobito in Angola, along Africa’s Atlantic coast, runs a 1, 300km (800-mile) stretch of railway that passes through neighbouring Zambia and resource-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
In DRC, the Lobito Corridor links the mining provinces of Tanganyika, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba and Haut-Katanga – home to some of the world’s largest deposits of critical minerals like cobalt and copper, earning it a fair share of international attention in recent years.
American President Joe Biden met with some of his African counterparts in early December regarding the multi-country agreement Lobito infrastructure project, which aims to improve connectivity between the Atlantic and Indian oceans and speed up access to Africa’s minerals for the US and European markets.
However, there are conflicting emotions and lingering fears in Congolese towns and cities along the railway project’s corridors.
The DRC has the world’s largest cobalt reserves and its seventh-largest copper reserves.
Some Congolese believe the Lobito project will facilitate the development of the region’s natural resources, while others think it will be a lucrative trade hub for African nations.
One of the main locations along the Corridor’s route, Kolwezi, is where Claude Banza resides, where rights groups have called out large mines for human rights violations.
“We lead a life of misery, we have no jobs”, Banza told Al Jazeera.
He praised the infrastructure projects, saying that they “are a lifesaver for us” and that they will give local communities more opportunities and hope.
We hope to have the resources to face the difficulties of life, he said, as the president has predicted that many jobs will be created.
According to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, who spoke last month in Angola, the project will result in the creation of about 30 000 direct and indirect jobs and help to end poverty in the country.
Along with Biden, Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema, Angolan President Joao Lourenco, and vice president Philip Mpango, he was speaking in the city of Benguela near the Lobito port. The project would extend from Zambia to Dar-es-Salaam, allowing it to reach the Indian Ocean, with the proposed extension eastward.
The development of the Corridor is a “project that is full of hope for our countries and our region”, Tshisekedi said at the time, calling it “a unique opportunity for regional integration, economic transformation, and to improve the living conditions of our fellow citizens”.
However, many in the DRC disagree.
‘ It is neo-colonialist ‘
The project is “pharaonic”, Dady Saleh, a Congolese economic analyst, told Al Jazeera.
He expressed regret over the fact that the countries where this infrastructure project will take place will only benefit from “crumbs,” citing the potential dangers ahead, particularly for the DRC.
“This project is an organised sell-off of the region’s natural resources in a capitalist system”, Saleh said. The Congolese will act like commission agents, especially in the DRC. We’ve opened up our economic market to modern plunderers”.
Many others in the mining industry’s forefront experience similar feelings.
Haut-Katanga, a second Congolese province connected to Lobito by the railroad line, is where Souverain Kabika resides. He is a copper handler for the trucks that transport ore from Tanzania to the Indian Ocean and to Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.
He worries that the small work he once had will dry up as truck traffic along nearby stretches of roads will decline significantly in favor of the railroad as a result of the growing project.
Even the small tasks we used to perform are likely to be threatened by this project. At one point, I was loading trucks to take goods to Matadi. This Corridor could leave me workless”, he fears.
According to analyst Saleh, the DRC has the most money on the table for this sizable project, and the government should look at it before agreeing to terms with nations that will gain more from it.
According to Saleh, “The DRC should not sign this contract and]should] renegotiate it because it is neo-colonialist.” Some African leaders argue that their actions risk bringing their nations back to “the days when railroads were made to facilitate the transport of our raw materials by the colonialists.
He urges the Congolese government to work toward creating a “complete industrial system,” and he also criticizes the US’s spending of more money in Angola than the DRC.
Civil society groups in Lualaba province, considered the cobalt capital of the world, are also opposed to the project.
The New Civil Society of Congo, a network of organizations, has criticized the fact that foreigners have benefited more from the country’s natural resources than the Congolese.
He demands that this project, which uses the Corridor to export minerals from the nation, be centred on local communities this time.
“We want to see wealth in our communities. Because the importer will make more money than we do, Menda said, we no longer want to export minerals. “We want to see hospitals, schools and roads to make life easier for the locals”.
‘ Game changer ‘
Raw materials from the various southern provinces of the DRC are already entering the London-based metals market via Kolwezi to the ports of Durban in South Africa or Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.
It takes a long time, and many logistical resources are involved, say analysts.
According to Kolwezi-based economic analyst Serges Isuzu, the Lobito Corridor will only lower transportation costs.
“With the Lobito Corridor, raw materials transporters will be able to cover more or less 1, 600 kilometres (1, 000 miles) from Kolwezi in the DRC to Lobito in the Republic of Angola. And all this will be done in eight days, which is good”, he said.
A shipment of copper from Africa to the US, which would have previously taken more than a month, is now arriving in days, according to Biden, who spoke in Angola last month. “It’s a game changer”, the US president said.
Provinces that are well-known for their raw materials will be connected to the Corridor, making them crucial for the transition to global energy.
These provinces – Tanganyika, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba and Haut-Katanga – owe much of their income to the flourishing mining activities that take place there. However, local populations’ daily lives are not affected by the gains.
Even if some progress is reported in terms of local development, much must be done for people’s lives to be “significantly impacted”, analysts familiar with these areas said.
The DRC is one of the poorest nations in the world because, according to recent World Bank estimates, 73 percent of Congolese people live on less than $2 per day.
Despite the country’s enormous deposits of key metals and minerals, the inhabitants of the DRC’s mining provinces are far from prosperous. Rights groups have noted that the majority of people struggle to make ends meet and live in desperate and precarious conditions as the vast wealth disappears.
An October 2024 United Nations policy document (PDF) on the regional effect of the Lobito Corridor also listed potential future challenges, including the environmental effect, land and community conflicts, as well as health, gender and human rights-related risks.
Additionally, it urged the three governments and other stakeholders to establish procedures to “address adverse human rights impacts and abuses, including any cross-border business-related human rights harms resulting from the Lobito Corridor.”
A ‘ wrong path’?
Congolese President Tshisekedi is optimistic about the Lobito project’s future despite the difficulties and reservations expressed by many locals.
The Corridor, along with Biden and other leaders in Angola, “presents a strategic opportunity to increase the value of our natural resources, particularly copper and cobalt, which account for 70% of global demand as part of the energy transition.”
According to Fadhel Kaboub, an associate professor of economics at Denison University in the US, he believes that if the right policies are implemented, some nations with strategic mineral resources, like the DRC, will be significant beneficiaries of the energy transition.
These nations will be able to bargain with foreign powers for their minerals, which will be in high demand on the market by 2035 as part of the energy transition, claims the expert in climate finance.
However, Congolese analyst Saleh believes that “mortgaging” is possible because the US and its partners ban out “leonine” contracts in Africa, where he claims one party pays all the costs while the other receives all the benefits, while the other is left with the benefits.
“We are in the process of burying this hope with the Lobito project”, he said. We gloat about the strategic minerals that the Chinese, Canadians, and other countries have already sold. For example, we are told that this Corridor will create 30, 000 jobs, which is very few. More than one million decent jobs should be created by a project like this.
Saleh encourages governments like the DRC’s to adopt a “neo-mercantile” system, so that Africans can enjoy their natural resources to the full.
“Countries like the USA, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are using their natural wealth today. We, on the other hand, are not even in a position to transform them at home, and that’s deplorable”, he lamented.
Menda, from the New Civil Society, stressed that the Lobito project is inappropriate for the Congolese nation. We want our ores to be processed locally here in Lualaba because moving them through the railroad to Lobito will benefit both the importing countries and Angola, not the local Congolese communities, he said.
Saleh worries about the security risks posed by the Lobito project in addition to the local economic losses.
According to his analysis, the DRC has “taken the wrong path,” and Angola and the US will “control” the country’s southern region, making connections to the tense security situation in eastern DRC, where Congolese authorities are battling to reestablish peace after mineral looting and an armed rebellion.
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