Despite Trump-fueled spats with the EU occurring regularly, key decision makers on both sides of the Atlantic have agreed on a joint declaration to accelerate work on the so-called Lobito Corridor project in southern Africa and to support investment in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
From the planning suites to actual construction, the Lobito Corridor project is moving forward. Funding has been allocated and signs of early implementation are visible. In 2025, the EU approved around €50 million specifically for developing agricultural value-chains and associated logistics along the corridor — indicating that the corridor is meant to support more than just strategic mineral exports, but also broader trade, agriculture and economic development.
In addition, the corridor has recently gained big backing: the European Union has mobilized over €2 billion in investments for the corridor across Angola, DRC and Zambia, according to media releases emerging from the Global Gateway Forum. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced in late 2024 a commitment of $553 million to upgrade the Lobito Atlantic Railway section inside Angola.
On December 17, The DFC held a signing ceremony in Washington finalizing the financial agreement for the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR). The DFC loan will support the rehabilitation and operation of the brownfield mineral port in Lobito and an approximately 1,300-kilometer brownfield rail line in Angola running between the Lobito port to Luau on the Angolan border. DFC’s investment, alongside the Development Bank of South Africa, in the Lobito Atlantic Railway is expected to increase Lobito’s transportation capacity ten-fold to 4.6 million metric tons as well as reduce the cost of transporting critical minerals by up to 30 percent.
A governance framework is in place: the three member states (Angola, DRC, Zambia) have established a management structure — the corridor interim Secretariat is to be administered via the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat — which intends to coordinate transport, policy harmonization, value-chain development, and logistics integration.
Accordingly, momentum on the project seems real: financing, administrative coordination, and some early works are underway, and the corridor is increasingly framed not just as a mining export route but as a broader trade and economic-development corridor as noted in the Joint Statement (see below).
According to Angolan officials, the corridor is “no longer just a wish” — parts of the infrastructure are already showing “concrete effects,” suggesting rehabilitation works, logistics upgrades on the old colonial era railroad or other early-phase implementation is happening in provinces along the route.
Structural challenges remain
There are also structural challenges inherited from past neglect: destroyed or war-damaged infrastructure, security risks (e.g., unexploded ordnance in some areas of Angola’s rail network), and logistical/port facilities that remain either incomplete or under-capacity — which all complicate full operationalization.
The estimated cost for extension has recently been recalculated — for instance, Angola is reportedly looking for as much as $4.5 billion to fund the full rail extension to Zambia’s Copperbelt, a steep rise over earlier estimates.
Warnings from the Left
At the same time, left-leaning western media have started to highlight the project’s social impacts — especially in densely populated mining-region cities. As one would expect from that perspective, the excitement and interest about the project’s economic potential is increasingly tempered by concern about displacement, inequality, and risk to vulnerable communities.
The issue of displacement is a major concern to local residents in a number of towns along the corridor route who have built houses very close to what had been disused colonial era rail lines, for many decades.
Declaration of Intent from the United States Government and the European Commission on the Lobito Corridor and Investment in the Great Lakes Region – Joint Statement
The text of the following statement was released by the Government of the United States of America and the European Commission:
“The Government of the United States and the European Commission reaffirm our shared commitment to promoting peace, security, and economic growth in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Together, we are focused on creating the conditions necessary for increased U.S. and EU investment across the region, recognizing that economic development is a cornerstone of long-term stability. Central to this effort is the Lobito Corridor, a transformative infrastructure project that will enhance regional connectivity, secure critical mineral supply chains, and drive sustainable economic growth. By linking the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the Atlantic Ocean port of Lobito in Angola, the Lobito Corridor will open new avenues for two-way trade between Central Africa and the United States and Europe.
The Government of the United States and the European Commission are working closely with private sector leaders and African partners to rehabilitate and modernize the Lobito Corridor, ensuring its success as a catalyst for regional development. In this spirit, we take note of recent private sector discussions with the Government of the DRC regarding investment proposals for the DRC portion of the Lobito Corridor. The Government of the United States and the European Commission stand ready to discuss possible ways to finance proposals that would ensure synchronicity with the ongoing rehabilitation on the Angolan side of the Corridor to maximize the efficiency and success of the project. We declare our intention to remain fully aligned and coordinated to support the Corridor’s success which will secure more transparent supply chains and sustained investment from the region.”
Release date: December 4, 2025
