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Turns Out China Still Finances Railway Projects in Africa

by Eric Olander
File image of a Sudanese railway line in Khartoum. PATRICK BAZ / AFP

Until recently, it was widely understood that China had stepped back from lending large amounts of money to African governments for railway projects with questionable prospects of repayment. Apparently, that was an exaggeration.

Sudan, according to Bloomberg, secured $640 million in Chinese financing to rebuild the country’s ailing railway network. The news is a little surprising, given that Sudan is also on the World Bank’s list of 34 highly indebted poor countries in Africa with more than ten million of its people facing acute hunger, according to the UN.

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