US and EU critical minerals project could displace thousands in DRC – report | Democratic Republic of the Congo

Up to 6,500 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are at risk of displacement due to a multibillion-dollar infrastructure project funded by the EU and the US, amid a global race to secure supplies of copper, cobalt and other “critical minerals”. According to a report by campaign group Global Witness..

Called the Lobito Corridor, the project aims to upgrade the colonial-era Benguela railway from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Lobito on the Angolan coast and improve port infrastructure, as well as build a railway line to Zambia and support agriculture and solar energy installations along the route. Angola said this It needs 4.5 billion dollars (£3.4 billion) for the extension of the line.

The project was designed to facilitate the export of minerals used in green energy technologies such as electric car batteries. This comes as Western countries, China and Gulf countries compete to control critical mineral trade.

Some 1,200 buildings are at risk of collapse, mostly in Kolwezi, due to the planned rehabilitation of the railway line running from the Congolese mining town of Kolwezi to the Angolan border, Global Witness estimates based on analysis of satellite data.

Many poor residents of Bel Air, Kolwezi neighborhood, built homes and businesses near the railway line. According to Global Witness, a buffer zone where construction is not allowed has rarely been implemented before.

The line has remained mostly out of use since the 1980s until recently when the line began to be rehabilitated. Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR), a consortium of companies including Portuguese construction company Mota-Engil, Singapore-based commodity trader Trafigura and Belgian rail operator Vecturis, has won a 30-year concession to operate the Angolan section of the Benguela Railway in 2023.

A community leader identified only as Emmanuel told Global Witness that some residents bought the land from sellers who did not own it.

Others said they bought land from workers who were given land by their employer, the DRC state railway company Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo (SNCC). SNCC still operates the railway line, although LAR currently uses it.

According to Global Witness, Jean-Pierre Kalenga, land affairs minister for Lualaba province, where Kolwezi is located, said people living in the buffer zone were “illegal”. The Guardian approached the DRC’s national communications ministry for comment.

“You can’t say [the residents] is ‘illegal’. No one stopped them from building. They were left to live there for 10, 20, 30 years,” Donat Kambola, president of Initiative pour la Bonne Gouvernance et les Droits Humains (IBGDH), a local nonprofit, told Global Witness.

According to the LAR, the current buffer zone of the railway, where emergency works are ongoing, is 10 meters in both dimensions of the railway. For the expected future rehabilitation of the line, which has not yet been approved, Congolese officials and a member of the SNCC union told Global Witness that the buffer zone would be 25 meters on each side. The campaign group estimates this larger buffer zone could displace up to 6,500 people.

An LAR spokesman said: “The Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium provides funding for the existing railway in the DRC in exchange for the use of the line. SNCC retains full responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the line within the DRC.

“The LAR Consortium is not aware of, and has not been presented with, any evidence to support the claim that 6,500 people residing in the Bel Air informal settlement in Kolwezi may be displaced by the ongoing project to rehabilitate the existing railway in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

Kolwezi residents interviewed by Global Witness said they feared being forcibly evicted without compensation, claiming they knew of homes being demolished free of charge to make way for new roads and mines.

LAR when you get the privilege determined to spend $455 million on the 835-mile Angola section of the railway and $100 million on the 249-mile DRC section. Western financing commitments include: $553 million loan from the US government’s development finance company for the port of Lobito and the Angolan railway, and €50 million (£44 million) From the EU for the improvement of Zambia’s railway infrastructure.

An EU commission spokesman said: “The project is still at an early stage. Possible impacts associated with the planned rehabilitation of the Lobito railway line in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be assessed through a full feasibility study and detailed technical design, including an independent environmental and social impact assessment study. These are currently ongoing.”

“What we can confirm is that the EU applies the highest social and environmental standards in all projects it finances.

“These envisage, inter alia, comprehensive consultations with relevant communities and a resettlement action plan that will ensure fair compensation and support where necessary.

“The EU is not currently involved in the rehabilitation work carried out by SNCC or the LAR consortium. Therefore, we have no additional information to provide at this stage..”