Tanzania and Angola reach agreement to connect rail corridors

The move brings together multibillion-dollar infrastructure backed by Western governments and China. Tanzania and Angola have agreed to connect railways serving ports on opposite coasts of Africa, Tanzania’s president said. The move brings together multibillion-dollar infrastructure backed by Western governments and China. The proposed connection of the Western-backed Lobito Corridor with China-backed TAZARA would stretch between ports on Angola’s Atlantic coast and Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast through Zambia and DR Congo, home to Africa’s richest deposits of copper and cobalt — minerals deemed vital to economic security amid the global energy transition. The agreement complicates the geopolitical narrative around both railways because connecting them would turn rival corridors into a coast-to-coast network, putting Zambia and Congo in a position where they have access to both oceans without having to choose between China and the West. The plan may be seen as illustrating an argument that developing countries are resisting pressure to choose camps in the growing competition between Washington and Beijing. The agreement comes days after the Africa Finance Corporation picked contrac