West's African Rail Rival to China's Belt and Road is Imperialist 'Pipe-Dream'

Plans by the G7 countries to build a railway across southern Africa — to speed the export of raw minerals — contrasts with China's project to connect the developing world in a grand trade network, says peace activist KJ Noh.

The former colonial powers will never help Africa develop as China does, a pundit says.

Last week the G7 group of developed nations announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the African Development Bank (AFDB) and the Africa Finance Corporation for a $600 billion trans-continental railway.

The US-dominated group said the line would follow the so-called Lobito Corridor from the South Atlantic port of Lobito in Angola, eastward through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Zambia's copper-mining belt, then on through Tanzania to the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam.

The project has been touted as a rival to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to build up trade infrastructure between developing nations in Asia, Africa and Europe while strengthening security.

Peace activist and write KJ Noh told Sputnik that the G7's rail line was a "pipe dream," or at best a "business opportunity."

"The simple fact is that the West doesn't do infrastructure anymore. Ask Pete Buttigieg," he said, referring to the US transportation secretary who declared in 2021 that roads were "racist."

"What's going on with the infrastructure in the US or in the UK? The US funds infrastructure. They don't build it," Noh pointed out. "Look up British Rail and see the complaints. You'll get 22 million hits, of which most of them will tell you that the rail service is shockingly bad."

He said the "financialized" Western economies "don't believe in infrastructure," preferring "cheap rentier extraction" instead.

By contrast, China is focussed on infrastructure projects — and would welcome more built with G7 money as "China will benefit, the African countries will benefit," erybody will benefit from this interconnection."

The commentator stressed that the West had failed to develop Africa when they ruled the continent directly for almost a century.

"The British and the Europeans were in Africa for centuries. They didn't build rail back then. Why would you trust them to do it now?" Noh asked. "So this is yet more hot air. I think the money has not been committed. I'll believe it when I see it."

The peace campaigner noted the contradiction between the West's stated intentions with the rail project and its neo-colonial history of destabilising states and toppling governments across the continent.

"You need political stability before you can do these types of large agreements and infrastructure projects," Noh said. "But the fact is that the US has created an arc of instability all across Africa, in particular across the Sahel" — the east-west belt running south of the Sahara that includes Mali and Niger.

And so, you know, the you know, the nature of the empire has always been to divide and conquer and to create disorder and chaos and to encourage fighting and conflict," he continued. "Are they aware of all the resentments and all the conflicts that will be blowback from what they have already instigated?"

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