Reconstruction of the network of railways in Angola, destroyed by the country’s civil war, between 2005 and 2015 cost over US$3.5 billion, Angola’s Minister of Transport, Augusto da Silva Tomás said Monday.

The minister was speaking in Luau, formerly known as Teixeira de Sousa, where he opened the final stretch of the Benguela Railroad (CFB) in Moxico province, representing the return, 32 years later, of the train connection between the Atlantic Ocean (Lobito) and the interior of Angola, a route covering 1,344 kilometres.

Reconstruction of the three national lines built during the colonial period – along with CFB, the Luanda Railroad and the Moçâmedes Railroad – involved a public investment of US$3.5 billion in 2,612 kilometres of the network and construction of 151 railway stations from scratch.

The Angolan railway network, rebuilt by Chinese companies, was also used for the passage of a fibre optic cable, and involved acquisition of 42 locomotives, 248 carriages of various types and 263 wagons, added the minister.

The ceremony in Luau was attended by Angolan President, José Eduardo dos Santos, and the Heads of State of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila, and Zambia, Edgar Lungu Chagwa.

The two countries that border Angola in this region can use the rebuilt railway to export – along the CFB and through the port of Lobito – the ore extracted in the regions of Katanga (DRC) and the copper region (Zambia), with the future interconnection of the three railways.

Reconstruction of the CFB line, now fully completed, has cost nearly US$1.9 billion, crossing four Angolan provinces with seven million inhabitants.