Outgoing US President Joe Biden is pictured during his state visit to Angola in Luanda, Angola, December 3, 2024. (Photo by Julio Kikebu/Xinhua)

It also explains why the LAR delayed paying the concession fees long after winning the bid, prompting concerns within the Angolan government. Fearing the LAR might abandon the project, Angolan officials reportedly approached other bidders, offering them the opportunity to take over the project if they could pay the required fees.

A representative from one of the companies that had initially bid for the project told Xinhua: "The project originally had profit potential, allowing regional countries and companies to benefit together. However, after governments from Western countries like the United States intervened, the project was unnecessarily politicised. When Angolan officials privately asked if we could take over the project in case the Western consortium withdrew, we refused due to the political risks involved."

Over two years have passed since the Western consortium won the bid, yet no progress has been made on its construction. Instead, the consortium's management team has undergone frequent changes.

"The involvement of the United States and its European allies in the Lobito Corridor project indicates Washington's increasing willingness to use great power competition as an organising framework for foreign policy. That, in turn, raises many questions about the efficacy and viability of the 'equal partnership' the Biden administration has articulated as part of its much-touted 'reset' of relations with African countries," said a report published by the Stimson Center, titled "The Empty Promises of the US-EU Lobito Infrastructure Project."

TOXIC AID

The Lobito Corridor is not the first "empty promise" Washington has made in Africa, and it will not be the last.

Earlier this year, Biden pledged to continue supporting Kenya in building a 440-km highway connecting the capital Nairobi to the port city of Mombasa, with a projected investment of 3.6 billion dollars. However, a similar project which was agreed upon between Kenya and the United States back in 2017 and expected to be completed in 2024 had never broken ground.

In recent years, the DRC and Zambia signed separate memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the United States and the EU, aiming to establish special economic zones to process raw minerals into battery components and other preliminary products.

But progress remains elusive. As Harvard International Review noted in an article, "If these good intentions never advance beyond the MoU stage, they are worth as much as toilet paper."

However, "empty promises" are not the worst-case scenario for such cooperation or aid initiatives in Africa. Many African nations refer to cooperation with the West as "toxic aid," as it often comes with political strings attached, which can harm their economies, or even lead to regime change in extreme cases.