United States President Joe Biden visited Angola this week on his first ever trip to Africa as president – just weeks before he leaves office for Donald Trump.
Biden is expected to arrive in the capital of Angola, Luanda, on Monday, after a short stop in the West African country of Cape Verde. The two-day trip to Angola, many analysts say, represents a last-ditch, desperate attempt to fulfill a long-held promise by Biden to counter China's growing influence on the continent.
The anticipated visit, which was postponed from October due to Hurricane Milton, will see Biden visit the Port of Lobito, which is at the heart of US trade relations with Angola. There, he will inspect an ongoing mineral infrastructure project that is set to see large quantities of cobalt and copper brought to the West.
Here's what you need to know about Biden's visit to Africa and why Lobito is important:
Why didn't President Biden visit Africa?
Analysts say Biden's failure to visit any African country – apart from Egypt for COP27 in November 2022 – so far shows that his administration has not prioritized the continent.
Biden first promised to visit Africa in December 2022, two years into his presidency – which one note turned out to be too late.
He made this promise at the US-African leaders' summit in Washington, where 49 African leaders were gathered. The US is “total in Africa and all of Africa”, Biden said at the time. He also announced a $55bn support package for the African Union.
The Biden administration hosted several African leaders at the White House, but the promised visit never materialized — until now.
“The president's trip to Africa is rare enough that it's always important,” Cameron Hudson, senior Africa analyst at the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Al Jazeera.
“This will be very difficult to come by as it happened at the end of the term of office of a disabled president. It's strange that [an Africa trip] perhaps more important to Biden, who wants to establish a legacy in Africa… than Africa, which is already preparing his successor,” added Hudson.
Africa's valuable natural resources, a rapidly growing population of 1.3 billion, and enormous voting power in the United Nations – with 54 countries' votes – make the continent an important strategic player.
How has Biden viewed relations with Africa so far?
America's influence on the continent has been waning for years, as China and Russia have strengthened their presence in several countries.
China has since 2013 overtaken the US to become Africa's largest trading partner. This year, the US lost a major spy base in the West African country of Niger, and its army was expelled from Chad. That has left it difficult to find a military base in the Sahel region, which has become a hotbed of violence by a number of armed groups.
In 2022, the White House released an ambitious Africa strategy document that shifted from the Trump administration's first focus on trade relations.
Instead, the document promised, the US will push for Africa to have leadership roles in international arenas, including permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council and G20 membership. Commentators hailed the approach as “modern” and “ambitious” at the time but its enthusiasm quickly faded as little action followed.
Several high-ranking officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have visited African countries on different occasions.
Meanwhile, Biden found time to travel elsewhere. He has visited the United Kingdom alone five times, in addition to visiting Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
In contrast, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have visited African countries at least twice as heads of state.
Why is Biden visiting now, and why in Angola?
A visit to Luanda will see Biden focus on the $800m Lobito Corridor rail project. The corridor is a strategic trade route linking the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with Zambia and Angola, which hosts the port of Lobito, on the Atlantic Ocean.
Funded mainly by the US and the European Union, the Lobito Atlantic Railway project will see the existing rail network in the Lobito Corridor being upgraded. That would allow the rapid export of cobalt and copper, among other minerals, mined in the DRC's mining town of Kolwezi, to the West.
The DRC is one of the largest producers of copper and cobalt in the world. Minerals are key components of batteries that power electric vehicles, which the US and EU are keen to develop further as the demand for cleaner energy supply chains grows.
Washington provided a $550m loan to start the project. The African Development Bank and the Africa Finance Corporation are also involved.
The railway is 1300km (800 miles) long and will see an extension to the mineral rich areas of Zambia. Portuguese company Trafigura is leading a consortium of three companies that will operate the railway for 30 years under a concession agreement. In August, the company said it shipped the first container of minerals to the US through Port Lobito.
Analysts say the US faces challenges in the corridor. China also owns this region, and has already locked in many minerals that would be sold to Western countries under its big Belt and Road Initiative, noted researcher Wala Chabala in a paper for a research organization in Berlin, Africa. Center for Policy Research.
“Not only are the Chinese everywhere on the African continent, but China is already at the forefront of building supply chains for cobalt, lithium and other precious metals and minerals,” Chabala wrote.
In September, a Chinese state-owned engineering company signed an agreement to operate the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), another railway in the corridor linking central Zambia with the port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.
What does Biden's visit to Angola mean?
American officials say the trip is designed to highlight the relationship between Angola and the US.
Currently, Luanda is also playing a leading role in mediating the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda, regarding the ongoing violence in eastern Congo.
Angola, until a few years ago, was a heavy borrower from China. It has also historically been close to Russia: During Angola's 27-year civil war, the US and the former Soviet Union backed the rival sides, leading to cold relations between Luanda and Washington.
However, the government of President Joao Lourenco, which has been in place since 2017, has favored strong relations with Washington. The two countries have deepened trade relations and by 2023, US-Angola trade has reached $1.77bn. Angola is the US's fourth largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2021, and most recently, in November 2023, Biden hosted President Lourenco in the White House.
However, analysts say Washington's view of Lourenco's government ignores allegations of human rights violations under his watch. Lourenco is unpopular with many Angolans because of the high cost of living, corruption, and increasing lawlessness by the opposition. In June, authorities opened fire on protesters angry over inflation, killing eight people in the central province of Huambo. Several others were arrested in cities across the country.
Analysts say Biden's refusal to acknowledge those concerns about alleged rights abuses is a blemish on his record.
“Many observers believe that Biden's visit may embolden the unpopular president,” said Florindo Chivucute, director of Friends of Angola, a group that advocates for strong democratic values in Angola and is based in Luanda and Washington, DC.
“Although the US lags behind China in terms of trade and political influence in Angola, it should not compromise its core values of democracy and human rights to try to gain it,” he said.
What's next for US-Africa relations?
Although President Biden has finally fulfilled his promise to visit Africa, his administration could not achieve some of the goals they set for themselves.
The African Union was accepted as a full member of the G20 in September 2023. However, no African country is yet a full member of the UNSC.
In September 2024, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced that her country would support two permanent UNSC seats in Africa. However, he warned that those seats will not have veto power, a position many analysts criticize because it will put in place a two-tier system – one for UNSC members who have veto power, and the second for those who do not have that power.
On the other hand, the Trump presidency, it is possible to focus only on trade relations, as they did the first time, experts say.
The incoming administration will likely want to compete with the influence of China and Russia, as well as the world's access to important minerals, Tibor Nagy, the top envoy to Africa under the Trump administration, told Reuters news agency.
There, at least, projects like the Lobito Railway can see strong US investment. “This checks both boxes,” Nagy said, referring to the rail project.
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