Lobito corridor, an exception in US aid cut

The US has scaled down its aid to Africa but kept supporting and funding for the Lobito corridor which will give its industry access to rare minerals,key to the energy transition.

The Lobito Corridor is a major trans-African infrastructure project designed to connect the mineral-rich regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia through railways to the Atlantic Ocean via the port of Lobito in Angola.

While Trump dismantled USAID and halted funding for many civil society and infrastructure projects across Africa,he maintained backing for the corridor,to which the previous administration had pledged $550 million.

Through this corridor,the US attempts to bridge the gap in infrastructure funding with China and gain privileged access to DRC’s critical minerals,notably copper and cobalt.

The project,underpinned by the quest for access to strategic minerals,underscores the new US approach to Africa based on trade.

“Trade,not aid,is now the pillar of our policy in Africa,” Troy Fitrell,the State Department’s top Africa official,said in a speech last week at a business summit in Abidjan.

Caught between a fierce economic competition for their resources between the US,China,and to a lesser extent the EU and Turkey,African elites warn of the reproduction of an extractive economic model that left most of Africa dependent on the export of raw material without processing them locally,to spur growth and create jobs.