How disinfo threatens Angola’s rail ambitions

A 2,100-kilometre railway connecting Angola’s Lobito port to the copper and cobalt heartlands of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia is more than just steel and sleepers. The Lobito Corridor is a geopolitical artery and a cautionary tale about how major African infrastructure projects are increasingly being targeted by disinformation campaigns.

In late 2024 and early 2025, the corridor became the subject of a swirl of false claims. Viral posts alleged, without evidence, that US funding had been cut after a change in Washington’s administration. Fake news pages styled as credible media outlets pushed doctored headlines and fabricated quotes from Angolan opposition leaders. Even AI-generated images, like one showing actor John Cena supposedly filming a movie in Cubal, blurred reality and created misleading associations with the project.

The Lobito Corridor promises to reshape regional trade and development. Western governments tout it as a way to secure access to critical minerals for the green transition used in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones.

Joe Biden visits

The disinformation surge reached a peak in December 2024, following a high-profile visit by then-US president Joe Biden to Angola. As reported by Polígrafo África — a leading fact-checking outlet focused on Lusophone Africa — false and misleading claims flooded social media shortly after Biden announced an additional $600 million investment in the Lobito Corridor. Biden was the first sitting US president to visit Angola. Though it came just 50 days before the end of his term, the announcement was widely interpreted as a strategic counter to China’s growing influence in Africa.

The US backing of the Lobito Corridor signalled a direct response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an expansive infrastructure strategy through which Beijing has secured access to critical minerals and built economic dependencies across Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. In contrast, the Lobito Corridor offers an alternative route for exporting Africa’s rich mineral resources and an opportunity for Europe to reduce reliance on supply chains increasingly shaped by Chinese or Russian interests.

Disinformation begins

It was in late January 2025 that one of the most viral false claims about the Lobito Corridor began to spread. Several Facebook pages that look like legitimate news outlets posted that the new US administration under Donald Trump had ‘frozen all American funding’ for the project. According to these posts, the decision was part of a broader suspension of aid. Though entirely unsubstantiated, the claim gained traction across social media and messaging platforms.

One widely shared post from 20 January 2025 featured a doctored screenshot of a CNN Brasília headline reading ‘All of Biden’s treaties will be annulled.’ The post drew a direct and incorrect link to the Lobito Corridor, suggesting the project would be among the casualties of the Trump administration’s policy shift. ‘Serves him right,’ one user wrote. Another added: ‘Good for him, we’ll never see that development.’ Hundreds reacted and dozens shared the posts.

More polished variations of the same narrative appeared again in February 2025. Two separate pages, both presenting themselves as media organisations, posted claims about Trump cutting funding, this time in a traditional news style.

“Angola 24 Horas’ generated thousands of reactions, nearly 200 shares, and over 300 comments. While there’s no concrete evidence that these posts were coordinated or centrally managed, they clearly reflect the reach and persuasive power of loosely organised disinformation networks.

Adding fuel to the rumours, a quote began circulating on WhatsApp, attributed to Adalberto Costa Júnior. He is a leader of Angola’s main opposition party, UNITA. The posts claimed that during a press conference in Huambo, Costa Júnior stated: ‘The Lobito Corridor project has been frozen by the new US administration, led by Donald Trump.’ The quote appeared in multiple viral WhatsApp messages shortly after Trump’s inauguration speech, but has since been deleted from all sources. No such statement was recorded in official press transcripts or verified by any reputable outlet. Still, its spread was enough to raise doubts among citizens about the future of the project.

However, a fact-checking article, published in January 2025, by Poligrafo África revealed that the claim was false. The viral statement was not supported by any official source or verifiable public record of Costa Júnior making such a remark. Indeed, he commented on Trump’s inauguration speech, saying: ‘Look at Trump’s speech: us, us and us … we, Angolans, must unite and defend the national interest.’ (European leaders, like Emmanuel Macron, reacted similarly to Trump’s radical steps.) Poligrafo África was able to trace the origin of the claim in the form of an edited video clip shared on social media, in which the opposition leader’s speech had been selectively cut and misrepresented. In reality, he had expressed scepticism about the continuity of foreign funding in general, but did not specifically say that Trump had cancelled the Lobito project.

A month after the Poligrafo África debunk, the Angolan minister of transport, Ricardo D’Abreu, publicly denied any interruption in the US funding of the project. Confirming the commitment, the US ambassador, James Story, visited the project site in the spring and announced funding for the corridor despite the spending cuts by the new US government.

From Hollywood to Cubal

Not all disinformation around the Lobito Corridor comes from political sources. At the end of 2024, a viral image circulated on Facebook claiming that American actor and former wrestler John Cena was filming a new movie in Cubal, which is a small town in Angola’s Benguela Province, situated along the Lobito Corridor.

The photo, which showed Cena on a dusty Angolan road surrounded by a film crew, was accompanied by the caption: ‘John Cena is in Cubal filming his new movie.’ But the image was generated using artificial intelligence tools. A fact-check by Polígrafo África found that the image had distorted faces, blurred background elements, and even extra fingers.

In reality, Cena’s latest film, Jackpot: Lotaria Mortal, had been shot entirely in Atlanta, Georgia. No production had taken place in Angola. Despite this, the post gained traction, with hundreds of shares with amused and confused reactions.

Why does it matter?

The Lobito Corridor is more than a railway. It’s a geopolitical chess move — one that has drawn global powers into a scramble not just for infrastructure, but for influence.

By backing the project, the US and European Union aren’t merely investing in economic development; they’re vying for access to critical minerals needed for the green transition. The stakes are high: the Democratic Republic of Congo alone holds over 70% of the world’s cobalt reserves — a key ingredient in batteries powering electric vehicles. Meanwhile, China has spent over a decade quietly locking down Africa’s mineral wealth, offering loans and building infrastructure in exchange for long-term resource rights.

The result? When European or American consumers buy smartphones or electric cars, there’s a good chance the cobalt inside was mined in Africa — and refined by Chinese firms. The Lobito Corridor is meant to offer an alternative: a faster, more transparent export route to Western markets. But that ambition has also made the project a magnet for online manipulation.

So far, it’s unclear whether the false narratives swirling around the Corridor, from fabricated political quotes to AI-generated Hollywood cameos, are coordinated efforts or the result of chaotic online chatter. But analysts have noted a troubling trend. As the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) warned in late 2024, major infrastructure initiatives in contested regions are becoming increasingly vulnerable to homegrown and foreign-sponsored disinformation.

In response, key institutions are sounding the alarm. The US Embassy in Luanda, the African Development Bank, and local professional associations have all emphasised the need for stronger media literacy and digital resilience.

The Angolan Media Regulator has taken steps to combat the spread. In November 2024, it held its first national workshop for journalists and communication students on how to identify and fight disinformation. A second edition is already being planned.

Because Angola’s future, like that of many nations, will depend not only on laying down railways, but also on strengthening the country’s defences against digital disruption and manipulation.

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This article was written by journalists at Poligrafo working with the Pravda Association, and edited by senior editor Eva Vajda and Athandiwe Saba.