Washington is set on a trade-focused shift in Africa, but critics say it facilitates further plundering of Africa’s natural resources.
When veteran naval officer Frank Garcia was appointed by the United States Senate as assistant secretary of state for African affairs this week, he praised the administration of Donald Trump for affirming Washington’s engagement in “trade and investment for mutual benefit” in the African continent.
In particular, Garcia highlighted the Lobito Corridor – a strategic 1,300km (810-mile) rail and transport route linking the Atlantic port of Lobito in Angola to the mineral-rich regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia – as an example of this new direction during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 5.
While it was the former Biden administration which signed a memorandum of understanding to provide investment into this project, Trump mobilised funds in 2025. Garcia described the project as a model for a new way forward in Africa, anchored in what he said were core US national interests and aligned with the “America First” approach.
The veteran naval officer, whose new role is one of Washington’s most strategically important diplomatic positions in Africa, stressed that job creation, regional integration and expanded commercial ties would be prioritised, rather than humanitarian assistance, which must be assessed based on its contribution to national security and economic interests.
For some, the Lobito Corridor is an example of how US investments can boost Africa’s regional trade, create jobs, and improve infrastructure while offering investment opportunities. But critics say it mainly serves US efforts to secure alternative supply chains for critical minerals needed for the manufacture of electric vehicles, clean energy technologies and defence, furthering regional instability and conflicts.
“There is a real danger that the corridor exacerbates the crises [in conflict-torn African nations], rather than offering solutions,” Mike Jennings, professor of global development at SOAS University of London, told Al Jazeera.
“And its implementation feels very neocolonial in practice, spirit and objectives.”
The Lobito Corridor connects the mineral-rich Copperbelt to the Atlantic Ocean via Angola’s Lobito Port, amid a global surge in demand for critical minerals to secure supply chains for the global energy transition.
Its foundational infrastructure, the Benguela Railway, was first developed in 1902 as a colonial trade corridor to transport raw minerals from Africa’s inland to international markets in Europe and the Americas.
Angola, a colony of Portugal when the initial railway was concluded in 1931, was granted the initial 99-year concession by British mining and railway company Tanganyika Concessions, a key enterprise operating in colonial Africa for much of the 20th century.
That expired in 2001, and the infrastructure reverted from Portuguese authorities to the government of Angola, which had meanwhile gained independence in 1975. But by the time a 27-year civil war came to an end the following year, less than 3 percent of the railway remained operational.
The railway was eventually renovated by China as part of a $2bn rail-for-oil programme, and in 2023, the Lobito Atlantic Railway company obtained a 30-year concession involving Trafigura, Mota-Engil, and Vecturis SA.
The US government committed billions of dollars to the initiative to increase Lobito’s transport capacity and reduce the cost of moving critical minerals. In 2022, the US – under former President Joe Biden – the European Union and other G7 members signed a memorandum of understanding pledging to mobilise $600bn for infrastructure development over five years, of which the US committed $200bn.
The project is one of five key trade, transit and development routes in Southern Africa. It aims to significantly improve transport efficiency in the region, reducing both the time and cost of moving goods to coastal ports.
The corridor is being upgraded to facilitate the transport of copper, cobalt and other critical minerals, including lithium and nickel, faster from Central Africa to global markets, placing it at the centre of growing geopolitical competition over resources required for manufacturing electric vehicles and clean energy technologies.
Locally, supporters credit it with creating economic opportunities for communities living along the corridor, including farmers, artisans and small-scale miners hoping to export their products. It is also seen as having the potential to drive new forms of cooperation between governments, development partners and companies, with a focus on integrated supply chains.
Jennings, at London’s SOAS university, said weak transport links between African countries have contributed to weak integration and economic ties in the subcontinent. “Developing these is an important focus for infrastructure development that could – if done appropriately – support African economic growth and transformation,” he said.
“However, a big question is whether the Lobito Corridor is actually going to do this in the way it is being developed.”
Shortly before Trump came to office, in December 2024, Biden made his first-ever bilateral trip to Africa as president, visiting Angola in part to discuss support for the Lobito Corridor.
As China overtook the US in 2013 to become Africa’s largest trade partner, the visit was seen as an attempt to counter Beijing’s expanding influence on the continent.
While the capital commitment for the Lobito Corridor builds on groundwork laid under the Biden administration, Trump has not sought to abandon the project. Instead, he discarded his predecessor’s climate narrative and expanded control over critical mineral supply chains as core US national interests.
Under Biden, the Lobito Corridor was framed as a flagship climate-transition project in partnership with the EU’s Global Gateway initiative. The corridor has since been redefined by the Trump administration as a geopolitical instrument to counter China’s dominance, strengthen US control over critical materials and diversify supply chains.
The International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), set up during Trump’s first term in 2019, pledged a $550m loan to support the project. In December, the DFC signed a $753m financing package, described by its CEO Ben Black as noteworthy for “its unprecedented scale and strategic significance”.
“We see the railway as a key domestic and regional asset that will drive economic development and support the movement of critical metals to global markets,” Black said. The company’s statement added that DFC’s investments “help secure reliable supply chains and prevent monopolization by China and other strategic competitors”.
Jennings said the project appears to be oriented towards supporting trade out of sub-Saharan Africa, rather than strengthening inter-regional trade and links. “So it feels more like a continuation of the forms of exploitation of African natural resources than a new, Africa-oriented project,” he said.
“The fact that it is built around mineral extraction in a country devastated by decades of conflict and instability, in which access to those natural resources has fuelled those conflicts and tensions, is also deeply concerning,” Jennings continued.
“And on top of this is the way it appears to be being implemented, with little regard for the people who will be displaced, impacted and affected, and their views and needs not being taken into account.”
According to satellite image analysis carried out by the United Kingdom-based campaign group Global Witness, as many as 6,500 people could be affected by displacement linked to the development of the Lobito Corridor in the DRC.
The group’s research found that the railway runs through vulnerable communities where the ownership of houses and buildings along the railway line was in disput
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