FLOODING in western Angola has suspended rail traffic along the Lobito Corridor, disrupting a critical export route for copper, cobalt and other minerals from central Africa, said Bloomberg News on Monday.
Lobito Atlantic Railway said significant damage had been caused to tracks near the Halo River between Cubal and Caimbambo, roughly 140km southeast of the coastal city of Benguela. Flooding also affected infrastructure near the Cavaco River following heavy rains on Sunday, said Bloomberg citing the operator, adding that services on the affected sections had been halted until further notice.
The corridor, developed with US and European backing, connects mining regions in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Atlantic Ocean port of Lobito. It carries copper and cobalt as well as consumables used in extraction processes, making it a key link in global metals supply chains.
Flooding has battered the Benguela region in recent weeks. State broadcaster TPA showed residents stranded on rooftops as floodwaters swamped homes and streets in the city, which lies about 500km south of the capital, Luanda. In early April, heavy rains destroyed around 200 homes and killed at least 23 people in the region, bringing the national death toll from flooding to 39, according to Angola’s emergency services.
The disruption adds to concerns about the reliability of the corridor as a conduit for critical minerals at a time when Western governments and investors have committed significant resources to developing it as an alternative to Chinese-controlled supply routes from the continent’s interior, said Bloomberg News.
