The Lobito Corridor: Washington’s Answer to Belt and Road in Africa

Zachary Fillingham

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The ascent of China’s economic influence in Africa is undeniable, with China surpassing the United States as the continent’s largest trade partner in 2009 and more recently quadrupling the US-Africa trade volume. The trade gap has US policymakers concerned over eroding US influence on the continent, increasing the appetite for developmental and infrastructure investment to facilitate US-Africa economic ties. It is in this context that the Lobito Corridor – a 1,300 km railway traversing Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Zambia – first came to light in 2023.

Any US initiative in Africa is destined to play catch-up against China’s longer running and more comprehensive engagement strategy. Over the past decade, such efforts have run through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a colossal infrastructure and economic development project spanning across Asia, Europe, and Africa. To date, 52 African governments have signed BRI-related Memorandums of Understanding (MoU), and the initiative has translated into billions of dollars invested in the construction of roads, ports, railways, and other critical infrastructure. In 2023 alone, some $21.7 billion in loans flowed from BRI to Africa.

Finance flows of this caliber are never geopolitically neutral, and in this case, they have provided China with unprecedented access to Africa’s vast mineral wealth, with just two examples being the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Chinese companies own 72% of all cobalt and copper mines, and Guinea, where Chinese companies dominate the bauxite industry and are major stakeholders in the sprawling Simandou iron mine.

Lobito Corridor: Beating BRI at Its own Game

Enter the Lobito Corridor, a US-championed effort to engage with Africa in a manner similar to BRI. Announced in October of 2023 at the EU Global Gateway Forum, the project brings together the African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), United States, and European Commission, who together will realize the construction of a railway linking northwest Zambia to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean.