In theory the Strategic Corridors come across as a strategy intended to facilitate Africa–Europe trade and diversified value chains. In practice, however, the 11 corridors — including the yet to be developed 12th corridor — follow a familiar pathway: extraction and pathways for export of raw materials.
The primary source is the European Commission's CUSA / JRC strategic corridors report. Supporting coverage of the launch and the eleven-corridor shortlist is linked below.
A coastal highway and logistics corridor linking five West African capitals — narrowed from 55 CUSA candidates using 140 quantitative indicators.
130 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Rail and road corridor from the Ivorian coast to landlocked Burkina Faso.
138 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Maritime-and-land connectivity axis along the Atlantic edge of West Africa.
282 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Short corridor linking Benin's port of Cotonou to Niger's capital.
15 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Central African corridor from Atlantic ports to landlocked Chad.
36 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Cross-continental corridor linking Central Africa to East Africa through the DRC.
45 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Horn of Africa corridor linking Indian Ocean ports to the Ethiopian highlands.
65 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Indian Ocean to Congo Basin corridor for mineral and agricultural evacuation.
87 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Southern African corridor linking Indian and Atlantic coast ports.
602 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Primary evacuation route for the Copperbelt's copper and cobalt.
596 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Nile Basin corridor connecting North and East Africa — framed for future expansion around mining and battery-material prospects.
37 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Listed "to be developed further." Mining properties nearby encourage future expansion.
Full corridor brief →
Atlantic-facing rail corridor from Lobito through the DRC Copperbelt to Zambia — the EU and US flagship for critical minerals evacuation.
225 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
The EU–US flagship priority: a 1,300 km railway built to evacuate copper and cobalt to the Atlantic.
Full corridor brief →Rail and road corridor from the Atlantic to landlocked Mali — critical for iron ore, gold and cotton evacuation.
64 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
756 km standard-gauge line and parallel highway — the primary export outlet for landlocked Ethiopia's 120M-person market.
45 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Lamu Port–South Sudan–Ethiopia Transport corridor: 2,000 km of road, rail, pipeline and fibre from the Kenyan coast into the Horn.
46 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Mombasa–Kigali–Bujumbura–Goma road, rail and fibre spine serving the East African Community's 200M people.
169 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Dar es Salaam–Kigali–Bujumbura–Kinshasa multimodal corridor competing with the Northern Corridor for East African transit share.
91 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
The AU's flagship trans-African highway, folded into Global Gateway financing arrangements segment by segment.
317 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Johannesburg–Maputo road, rail and gas pipeline corridor — one of Africa's most industrialised transit routes.
107 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Durban–Lusaka–Lubumbashi–Dar es Salaam artery: the primary evacuation route for the Copperbelt.
192 mining properties (CUSA Table 2)
Five of the eleven are mineral resource corridors holding 49% of mapped mining properties. In the end the corridors mitigate the risk of supply disruptions of critical raw materials for the EU.
What remains largely unsaid is that these corridors will be developed with debt — financial outlays that African countries repay for up to 50 years.
The EU flaunts the grant elements of the projects. But it conveniently hides the fact that all grant elements are mainly directed at subsidies for European companies to tip any “open tenders” toward European corporations — either by absorbing interest charged by European Development Banks, or direct financing in the form of blended finance.
A shortlist built from 140 quantitative indicators — including mineral resources, ports, railways, roads, renewables, protected areas and conflict. Six of them reveal what the exercise was really weighing.
How much the region trades with the EU — absolute and relative EU exports and imports.
Estimated availability of mineral resources, expressed as the number of mining locations.
The share of the corridor projected to be used for agriculture by the year 2050.
World Bank versus Chinese financing of projects in the corridor between 2004 and 2014.
Connections between container ports in the corridor and container ports inside the EU.
The number of violent events, demonstrations and non-violent actions from 2015 to January 2021.