Back in 2009, former US President Barack Obama chose Angola, along with South Africa and Nigeria, as one of three potentially important strategic partners in Africa. Donald Trump later adhered to the same position.

USA wants to see Angola as a strategic partner

Washington will allocate another billion dollars to the Lobito Corridor project, which includes the modernisation of the 1,300km Lobito railway, as well as the construction of a modern 800km railway line that will connect Angola with Zambia. It is expected that this line will become a significant transport corridor for the transportation of important minerals, such as cobalt and copper, necessary for the production of electric vehicles and other products.

Trial steps in this direction are already in action. At the end of August this year, CNN reported that a container ship, carrying the first batch of copper shipped by rail from the DRC, left the port of Lobito. The 1,300km journey from the city of Kolwezi, where one of the world’s largest copper and cobalt reserves are located, was completed in 6 days as opposed to the 30 days it takes to deliver cargo by road (as it was done earlier).

Washington’s promised investments are far from stingy

Since the launch of this project in October, 2023, which Biden called “the largest US investment in railway infrastructure in Africa in history”, and until September, 2024, the United States plans to allocate more than $3 billion to finance projects in the Lobito Corridor zone, particularly for the development of solar energy, logistics, agriculture, healthcare and telecommunications networks.

Of this amount, $900 million has been allocated for the construction of two large solar power plants with a capacity of 500MW of renewable energy and $363 million for the construction of........

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