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The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will convene an Inter-Ministerial Task Force Meeting of Ministers responsible for Trade, Transport, Infrastructure, and Security Matters to address challenges at the Kasumbalesa Border Posts between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Zambia. The meeting will be held virtually on 11 April 2025.
The Kasumbalesa border post has faced persistent issues, including congestion, trade facilitation-related constraints, infrastructure challenges, and rising security concerns, particularly affecting truck drivers and the broader trading community. These challenges have remained a significant concern for the region.
Recognizing the strategic importance of the Kasumbalesa border post for intra-regional trade, the SADC region will adopt a corridor-wide approach to address these ongoing challenges, as recommended by the Stakeholders Consultative and Senior Officials from affected Member States, at their meeting held from 4-5 and 07 February 2025, in Harare, respectively. This approach takes into account that resolving issues at a single border post alone is not sustainable, as efficiencies gained may be offset by bottlenecks at adjacent border crossings and along the trade corridors
The Kasumbalesa border crossing serves as a convergence point for several regional trade corridors, including the North-South Corridors, the Central Development Corridor (Dar es Salaam), the Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi Corridor, the Beira Development Corridor, and the Lobito Development Corridor. These corridors impact 10 SADC Member States: Angola, Botswana, DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Honourable Felix Tapiwa Mhona, Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development of the Republic of Zimbabwe will chair the Inter-Ministerial Task Force Meeting. The meeting will bring together Ministers responsible for Trade, Transport, Infrastructure, and Security Matters from Angola, Botswana, DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The meeting will focus on reviewing current challenges at the Kasumbalesa border post and deliberate on a corridor-wide action plan for infrastructure development, transport, and trade facilitation to resolve the existing issues effectively.
