US Loan Meets Chinese Rail in Tanzania

TANZANIA · DIPLOMACY

Tanzania and Angola agreed on Thursday, 29 October 2026, to work toward a rail link joining the US-backed Lobito Corridor to Tanzania’s TAZARA railway, and signed an air services agreement meant to open direct flights. President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Angola’s President João Lourenço announced the outcome at State House in Dar es Salaam, during the first state visit to Tanzania by an Angolan president since 1979.

For Americans the news is the corridor: the US International Development Finance Corporation signed a loan for the Lobito Atlantic Railway on Wednesday, 17 December 2025, and a TAZARA link would join that line to one a Chinese company is to rebuild under a US$1.4 billion concession, as covered in the Rio Times guide to the Lobito Corridor and rival ports. The leaders gave no cost, route or start date, so the link remains an intention.

What the Two Presidents Agreed

Samia told the joint briefing that the two governments will organise a trade and investment forum and that Tanzania will reopen its embassy in Angola. Lourenço said the two countries need to strengthen economic ties to match their long political friendship, and Samia added: “Despite our good relations, economic and trade cooperation remains very limited.”

Angola’s foreign minister said four new agreements were signed on Thursday, covering the transfer of sentenced persons, air services, information and communications technology, and meteorology. He put the number of earlier accords between the two countries at 12.

A Rail Link From Ocean to Ocean

Samia said the proposed connection would join the Lobito Corridor to Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam and Central Corridors and would complement the rehabilitation of TAZARA and of Angola’s Benguela Railway. Lourenço said joining the rail systems could connect the Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts, adding: “We believe that connecting these railway systems will help link the two sides of the continent.”

The DFC signed its Lobito loan to rehabilitate the port of Lobito and about 1,300 kilometers of railway running to Luau on Angola’s border. The agency expects the investment to raise Lobito’s capacity tenfold to 4.6 million metric tons and to cut the cost of moving critical minerals by up to 30 percent.

At the eastern end the railway is far smaller today, because TAZARA’s board expects it to carry 110,000 metric tons of freight in 2026/2027, rising to 1.8 million metric tons in 2030/2031 after China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation rehabilitates the line. The concession, signed in September 2025, provides for US$1.4 billion of investment, the board said on Tuesday, 13 October 2026.

Flights, Oil and Mining

Travelers between the two countries now rely on connecting flights through other countries, Samia said, and the new agreement provides the legal foundation for direct services between Dar es Salaam and Luanda. The leaders named no airline or start date in their public remarks.

Samia said TPDC has begun preliminary work on a possible partnership in Angola’s planned Lobito oil refinery. No investment commitment was announced.

The two governments also agreed to exchange experience in mining, including support for small-scale miners and adding value to minerals before export. They also discussed security in eastern Congo and the Great Lakes region.

Why It Matters for the United States

The Lobito Corridor is a US-backed project to open the mineral-rich regions of Congo and Zambia to the Atlantic. Joining it to TAZARA, as the two leaders describe, would tie an Atlantic route to an Indian Ocean route for the same mineral belt.

The State Department announced a comprehensive review of its relationship with the Tanzanian government on Thursday, 4 December 2025, citing violence around the October 2025 election and obstacles to US investment, a story followed in the Rio Times report on US pressure over post-election deaths. Tanzania’s new agenda with Angola, a partner in the US-backed corridor, therefore sits beside an unsettled relationship with Washington.

What It Means for You

For investors, the announcements are intentions: a business forum, preliminary talks on a refinery stake and a framework for flights, with nothing priced, financed or scheduled. The financed part of the corridor so far is the Angolan railway and port covered by the December 2025 loan.

For travelers, nothing changes yet, because a direct route needs an airline, aircraft and approvals that the agreement only makes possible. For importers of Congolese or Zambian metals, any change in shipping routes depends on the TAZARA rebuild, whose freight projection reaches 1.2 million metric tons only in 2029/2030.

What Is Not Known

The leaders gave no cost, route or start date for the rail link, and the Angolan railway ends at Luau on the Congo border while TAZARA runs from Dar es Salaam into Zambia. Any connection would therefore cross Congolese or Zambian territory and need the agreement of those governments.

TAZARA’s board said on 13 October 2026 that outstanding requirements must be met before its concession takes full effect, and its communiqué does not list them. No airline has been named publicly for a Luanda to Dar es Salaam route.

More: Tanzania news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there direct flights between Tanzania and Angola?

Not yet. On 29 October 2026 the two countries signed an air services agreement meant to allow direct Dar es Salaam to Luanda flights, but no airline or start date has been announced.

What is the Lobito Corridor?

It is a rail and port route from Lobito in Angola designed to open the mineral regions of Congo and Zambia to the Atlantic. The US development bank DFC signed a loan for its Angolan railway on 17 December 2025.

What is TAZARA?

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway runs between Dar es Salaam and Zambia. A Chinese company holds a concession, signed in September 2025, that provides for US$1.4 billion of investment.

Why did Angola’s president visit Tanzania?

President João Lourenço made the first state visit to Tanzania by an Angolan president since 1979, from 28 to 30 October 2026. He and President Samia Suluhu Hassan focused on trade, transport, energy and mining.

Sources: TAZARA Board communiqué, 13 October 2026; US International Development Finance Corporation, 17 December 2025; US State Department, 4 December 2025.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief