EU’s flagship Africa project under fire over ties to Chinese state-owned firms

To European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the ribbon of rail snaking from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia across Angola to the Atlantic port of Lobito is “more than just infrastructure”.

The Lobito Corridor rail upgrade is a flagship project of the EU’s €300 billion (US$346 billion) infrastructure drive, Global Gateway, launched to great fanfare in 2021 as a rival to Beijing’s own Belt and Road Initiative.

It is also pivotal to the EU’s efforts to wean itself off China’s chokehold on the global supply of critical minerals.

The corridor is designed to ferry copper and cobalt – commodities crucial to making the hi-tech products powering the world’s industrial economy – from mine to port as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Now, EU lawmakers are demanding to know whether the more than US$2.3 billion in European funds that von der Leyen has poured into the Lobito Corridor is being funnelled towards Chinese state-owned companies.