By Semafor Africa
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Beijing struck a $1.4 billion railway upgrade deal with Tanzania and Zambia in a move to open up access to critical minerals.
The agreement aims to refurbish the decades-old Tanzania-Zambia or TAZARA railway, a vital route for moving copper and cobalt from Zambian mines to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam for export.
The Chinese investment aims to modernize the 1,156-mile (1,860-kilometer) rail track, locomotives, passenger coaches, and wagons.
The move comes as the US backs the Lobito Corridor project, a rival railway upgrade in the southwest of the continent, which will refurbish train lines that connect Angola’s Atlantic coast to resource-rich DR Congo, as well as Zambia.
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