Benguela - The US president Joe Biden left Angola on Wednesday, following a three-day official visit to this Southern African nation.
At Catumbela International Airport, Biden was bid farewell by his Angolan counterpart, João Lourenço.
Throughout his stay in Angola, whose focus was the Multilateral Summit on the Lobito Corridor, Joe Biden met with João Lourenço, in Luanda, in which he announced an increase in funding for food security, clean energy, internet and connectivity.
The US statesman visited the National Slavery Museum, where the first shipment of slaves left for the USA, highlighting the historical ties between his country and Angola.
Joe Biden recalled at the time that young women and men, born free in the highlands of Angola, were captured, tied up and forced on a death march and brought to the US coast by slave traders in 1619.
Speaking to an audience made up of government officials, MPs and other guests, the Us president mentioned two of these young people, Anthony and Isabella, who, in the building that houses the Slavery Museum, were "baptized into a foreign faith against their will, their names were changed and condemned to a slave ship bound for the Middle Passage, piled there with hundreds of others, about a third of whom did not survive the journey.
During his trip to Benguela province on Wednesday, Joe Biden participated in the aforementioned Summit attended by his counterparts from DRC and Zambia, Félix Tshisekedi and Hakainde Hichilema, respectively, in addition to the vice-president of Tanzania, Philip Mpango.
Issues related to the development and expansions of the Lobito Corridor, with a focus on increasing investment, were at the center of the discussion.
Before this Summit, held at the facilities of the largest manufacturing unit in the country, still in Benguela, the US president visited the Port of Lobito, an important infrastructure of the Corridor, having witnessed the arrival of a train operated by the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium transporting copper from the DRC.
The copper was then loaded onto a ship bound for New Orleans, in the USA, highlighting, once again, the strategic role of the Lobito Corridor in connecting Southern Africa and international markets.
The Lobito corridor is a strategic route of great economic and logistical importance for Angola, neighboring countries and the Southern African region. It connects the Port of Lobito, located on the Atlantic coast of Angola, with the country's interior regions and countries without access to the sea, such as the DRC and Zambia.
This important corridor serves as an essential route for the export and import of goods, particularly minerals such as copper, cobalt and other resources mined in the DRC and Zambia. It offers access to the global market, reducing logistics costs for these countries.
With continued investment and international partnerships, the Lobito Corridor has the potential to become one of the main transports and trade axes in Africa, it also stimulates economic growth in the interior provinces of Angola.
The United States has invested significantly in the Lobito Corridor, with a recent financial contribution of 1.3 billion US dollars.
This amount was made official in May 2024, as part of agreements signed between the US and the Angolan government.
The funding is earmarked for three main infrastructure projects related to the corridor, focusing on transport, renewable energy and connectivity. CRB/TED/AMP
