The disruption lasted four days. In the early hours of February 28, the Kakoso Bridge — located at km 15 on Zambia’s T3 road linking Chingola to Chililabombwe — collapsed under heavy overnight rainfall. Zambia’s Road Development Agency (RDA) said preliminary investigations indicate that drainage structures failed after being overwhelmed by the volume of rainwater. The T3 is one of the main routes to the Kasumbalesa border crossing, the primary transit point between Zambia and the DRC. Trucks backed up for tens of miles on both sides of the border.
The response was swift. Zambia’s Infrastructure Minister Charles Milupi ordered AVIC International — supported by the Zambia Army, Konkola Copper Mines teams and the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit — to complete a temporary bypass within 24 hours. The RDA confirmed late Tuesday that the road was operational again after works were completed on a temporary detour.
Reopened, but not fully restored
While traffic has resumed, conditions remain constrained. Approximately one-third of export volumes previously transiting through Kasumbalesa were diverted to the Jiu–Sakania and Mokambo routes during the closure, but these alternative corridors have a combined daily capacity of around 1,000 trucks — insufficient to fully absorb the additional traffic. Inland freight rates within the DRC are expected to rise in the short term as a result.
The temporary detour is just that — temporary. A permanent reconstruction of the Kakoso Bridge has yet to be scheduled by Zambian authorities. Questions also remain over the responsibilities of Turbo Kachin, the private concessionaire operating the affected road section under a PPP agreement.
A single chokepoint for global supply chains
The incident has again exposed a well-known vulnerability: Kasumbalesa is the dominant exit point for the DRC’s copper, cobalt and other critical minerals destined for Asian and North American markets. Congo is Africa’s largest copper producer and the world’s second-largest by output. It is also the world’s dominant cobalt supplier, producing over 70% of global cobalt output.
The episode renews calls for export route diversification. The Lobito rail corridor — connecting Kolwezi to the Angolan port of Lobito — is the most significant long-term alternative under development, though works on the DRC section are not expected to begin before late 2026. The Kasomeno–Kasenga–Chalwe project, which includes a new 362-metre cable-stayed bridge over the Luapula River between the DRC and Zambia, is progressing with completion scheduled for November 2027.
Until these alternatives come online, Kasumbalesa and its dependence on a handful of Zambian road structures will remain the unavoidable bottleneck for one of the world’s most strategically critical mineral supply chains.
