Beira Lobito Highway

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Map of the Beira-Lobito-Highway

The Beira - Lobito -Highway ( English : Beira-Lobito Highway ) is No. 9. Trans-African Highway network , by the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (ADB) and the African Union to be developed. The route has a length of 3,523 km and crosses Angola , the southernmost part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Zambia , Zimbabwe and central Mozambique .

In the south-eastern sections of the route, the road is mostly passable without any major difficulties, as it uses paved national roads in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The western half, however, which runs through most of Angola and the People's Republic of the Congo, consists of unpaved road sections and previously paved roads that urgently require extensive renovation.

The route connects mining regions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe and agricultural areas in Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe with the seaports of Lobito on the Atlantic and Beira on the Indian Ocean . Civil wars in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have hindered the development of this highway in the past, most recently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola, both of which are rebuilding.

The road route is accompanied by a railway line for most of its route, with the exception of the stretch from Kafue to Harare . However, this was also damaged by the effects of the civil war, so that its western half, the Benguela Railway, is currently not in operation.

The route between Kapiri Mposhi and Kafue in Zambia corresponds to that of the Cairo-Cape Town Highway (TAH 4).

When completed, this will be the southernmost trunk road in the Trans-African Highway network, which runs through the continent from east to west. In addition, regional highways built by the Southern African Development Community already offer well-functioning and continuously paved alternatives, in particular the Trans-Caprivi Highway from the Walvis Bay seaport in Namibia via the connection further south through Botswana and South Africa to the Maputo seaport in southern Mozambique.

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