Global Witness says plan to upgrade railway line from DRC to Angola puts up to 1,200 buildings at risk of demolition
Up to 6,500 people are at risk of being displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project funded by the EU and the US, amid a global race to secure supplies of copper, cobalt and other “critical minerals”, according to a report by campaign group Global Witness.
The project, labelled the Lobito Corridor, aims to upgrade the colonial-era Benguela railway from the DRC to Lobito on Angola’s coast and improve port infrastructure, as well as building a railway line to Zambia and supporting agriculture and solar power installations along the route. Angola has said it needs $4.5bn (£3.4bn) for its stretch of the line.
The project is designed to facilitate the export of minerals used in green energy technologies, such as electric car batteries. It comes as western countries, China and Gulf states vie to control the critical minerals trade.
Up to 1,200 buildings are at risk of demolition due to the planned rehabilitation of the stretch of railway from the Congolese mining city of Kolwezi to the Angolan border, most in Kolwezi itself, Global Witness estimated, based on analysis of satellite data.
