Biden Pledges $600M for Africa’s US-backed Lobito Corridor Rail Project
On his final day in Angola, President Joe Biden pledged an additional $600 million for the Lobito Corridor rail project, bringing total U.S. investment in the project to $4 billion. The initiative is part of a wider $6 billion partnership involving the EU, G7 and African banks to renovate 2,000 kilometers of railway linking Angola with mineral-rich regions in Congo and Zambia. The strategic move, aimed at countering China’s influence on the continent, is aimed at increasing U.S. access to critical minerals such as cobalt and copper used in clean energy technologies. China is a major player in the mining industry in Congo and Zambia, with Congo holding more than 70% of the world’s cobalt. Biden highlighted the corridor’s potential to transform logistics, noting that improvements in rail and shipping efficiency could shorten the time it takes to export minerals from Africa to the United States from 45 days to 45 hours.
source: AP News
