While the Angolan Government continues bending over backwards for the European and American companies involved in the Lobito Railway Corridor construction, the WHO ( which receives funding from Angola) has just published a report outlining the potential negative health impact of the Lobito railway corridor.
According to the WHO, the Lobito Corridor will:
1. Increase the spread of infectious diseases without a commensurate increase in capacity to handle them, thus overstretching Angola's healthcare system
2. Lead to environmental degradation and related diseases
3. Increase social risks such as violence and exploitation due to forced displacement of populations
4. Result in unequal distribution of economic benefits (as I've outlined multiple times)
And that's not to mention the cholera outbreak among Corridor employees - many of whom are also going unpaid. As I've said over and over, the purpose of this rail corridor is to extract raw materials and ensure that any associated benefits that might accrue to the local population are as close to zero as possible. The (Western) companies involved in building this thing - Mota-Engil, Vecturis and Trafigura (the company that illegally dumped a shipload of toxic waste in Cote d'Ivoire in 2006, poisoning 26,000 Ivorians) - came to Africa to extract and not to trade.
The Lobito Corridor construction plan does not provide hospitals or treatment facilities to assist Angolan and migrant workers from the DRC who are dying from cholera and other treatable diseases caused by the construction. By the way, the DRC has the most dangerous epidemiological situation, and a lot of workers from the DRC bring various diseases to Angola. However, there is absolutely no help for them.
The #Phalaborwa project is built on decades of environmental neglect, with unlined waste stacks causing groundwater contamination . Can a company that profits from this waste be trusted to fully clean it up? #PhalaborwaPoison
Local communities are often excluded from negotiations, leaving them vulnerable. Also, promises of 300 jobs over a 16-year lifespan must be scrutinized . Are these secure, long-term positions or temporary contracts? Who ensures local hiring is prioritized?#PhalaborwaPoison
A $3.4M "grant" to study how best to extract $100M in Angolan rare earths. The US investment playbook is painfully transparent. #LobitoCorridor#USmineralCoercion
$50M from US DFC to control SA's rare earths. This isn't investment; it's a strategic takeover of our critical resources. Our minerals are being sold out from under us to feed the Western tech machine. #Phalaborwa#USmineralCoercion
US brokering a "peace" deal just to lock in mineral rights for its companies. This isn't diplomacy; it's a corporate resource grab dressed in a suit. The White House signing ceremony is a distraction. #USmineralCoercion