Tanzania and Angola have agreed to connect their Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean transport corridors with a railway link via Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said.
The Benguela railway in Angola will join the Tanzania-Zambia Railway line to Tanzania’s port of Dar es Salaam, linking the Lobito corridor on the Atlantic coast with the central corridor on the Indian Ocean coast.
Photo: Samia Suluhu/X
Hassan gave no date for completion of the initiative in comments to reporters on Thursday.
In 2025, China signed a $1.4-billion pact with Zambia and Tanzania to modernise the TAZARA railway, which it had financed in the 1970s to facilitate copper exports and fuel imports.
Last week Italian construction firm Webuild said it had won a tender to build a section of the Zambia Lobito Railway Corridor.
TAZARA has been widely seen as a counterweight to the US and EU-backed Lobito Corridor, a route from Angola through Zambia to the DRC.
Angola has also invited Tanzania to invest in an oil refinery, with state energy firm Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation assessing the viability of a partnership in the Lobito oil refinery project, Hassan said.
Tanzania has not said whether it will take up an equity stake in a refinery being built in Kenya by Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote. East African governments have been offered a 30% stake and Rwanda and Kenya have so far committed to buying shares. Tanzania and Uganda are discussing plans to jointly build another refinery in Tanzania’s port of Tanga.
Leo Ikulu, jijini Dar es Salaam, nimemkaribisha na kufanya mazungumzo na Rais wa Jamhuri ya Angola, Mheshimiwa João Lourenço, aliyeko nchini kwa ziara ya Kitaifa, ikiwa ni ziara ya kwanza ya Rais wa Angola nchini Tanzania katika kipindi cha miaka 45.
Katika mazungumzo yetu tumejadili juu ya kuimarisha uhusiano wa kihistoria uliojengwa na waasisi wa mataifa yetu, Hayati Mwalimu Julius Nyerere na Hayati Agostinho Neto.
Tumekubaliana kuimarisha ushirikiano wa kiuchumi na kibiashara kwa Tanzania kufungua upya ubalozi wake nchini Angola, kuandaa kongamano la biashara na uwekezaji, kuunganisha Ushoroba wa Lobito na Dar es Salaam, na kuboresha muunganiko wa nchi zetu kwa usafiri wa anga na majini. Pia, tumejadili fursa za uwekezaji katika sekta ya mafuta nchini Angola pamoja na kuimarisha ushirikiano wa madini, ikiwemo kutumia Kituo cha Madini Afrika kilichopo Dar es Salaam kuongeza thamani ya rasilimali hizo.
Aidha, kama Kinara wa Afya ya Mama na Mtoto, nimemwalika Rais Lourenço kuungana nami katika juhudi za kutokomeza vifo vya mama na watoto, na kuhakikisha kila mtoto anapata chanjo zinazostahili.
— Samia Suluhu (@SuluhuSamia) October 29, 2026
Welcome to Tanzania
The President of the Republic of Angola, H.E. João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, has arrived in Tanzania for a three-day State Visit aimed at strengthening the longstanding bonds of friendship, solidarity and cooperation between Tanzania and Angola. https://t.co/Q0li8CsVya
— MFA Tanzania (@mfa_tanzania) October 28, 2026
