07/10/2026
WHY LUACANO TO CHINGOLA RAIL LINE MATTERS
At the Second Lobito Corridor Coordination Meeting in Lusaka this week, President Hakainde Hichilema called for particular attention to the Luacano to Chingola railway section. He insisted that it must not be treated as secondary to other parts of the Corridor. That intervention matters, because for Zambia, Luacano to Chingola is the missing link to the Atlantic.
The Lobito Corridor already has an operational railway. It runs from the Port of Lobito across Angola and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, and from there the Congolese line continues through Sakania. This Congolese link is planned for major rehabilitation soon. Zambia has no direct railway of its own into the Lobito system.
The proposed Luacano to Chingola railway would change that. Running from Luacano in Moxico Leste, eastern Angola through North Western Province to Chingola, it would connect directly with the Zambia Railways network in the heart of the Copperbelt. That is why Chingola matters. It sits where the new line would meet our existing rail system, close to the mines that will carry Zambia's growth in the years ahead.
President Hichilema has set the country a target of three million tonnes of copper a year. Much of that growth will come from the Copperbelt and from North Western Province, from operations such as Lumwana, Kansanshi and Kalumbila. Moving those volumes efficiently and affordably requires rail. Trucks alone cannot do it, and our roads cannot carry that burden without paying a heavy price.
But Lobito must be about more than copper. A railway works in both directions. Zambia can send minerals, maize, agricultural produce and manufactured goods westwards to the Atlantic, while fuel, fertiliser, machinery and other imports move eastwards into Zambia. For a landlocked country, a direct line to the Atlantic would complement our existing routes to the ports of eastern and southern Africa and give us something strategically valuable: choice.
Luacano to Chingola also gives practical meaning to the African Continental Free Trade Area. African integration cannot live only in signed agreements and conference communiqués. Roads must meet roads, railways must meet railways, border systems must talk to each other, and goods must actually move. This railway is the kind of project that turns the language of integration into something farmers, traders and miners can use.
The railway must also benefit the communities it passes through. A line through, Kanongesha, Mwinilunga, Mutanda, Solwezi and other parts of the North Western Province should bring more than passing trains. It should stimulate farming, logistics, energy, processing and new businesses along its route, and it should be linked to feeder roads that connect villages and towns to the main line. A corridor that only carries cargo past people is a missed opportunity.
This is why President Hichilema was right to insist that Luacano to Chingola be prioritised. Other parts of the Lobito Corridor are already moving forward. Zambia must make sure that its own direct connection does not become the piece that is always promised and never built.
With Luacano to Chingola, Zambia becomes part of the railway itself. It is, quite simply, our railway to the Atlantic.
-Rev. Dr. Elias Munshya
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Zambia to the Republic of Angola
