Zambia and DRC sign new deal to cut Kasumbalesa truck queues

Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a bilateral trade facilitation agreement intended to streamline customs procedures at the Kasumbalesa and Mokambo border posts, the two countries' busiest crossings for copper, cobalt and general trade. Commerce Minister Chipoka Mulenga and his DRC counterpart Julien Paluku signed the accord in Lusaka, establishing joint border committees, harmonised documentation requirements and a pilot single-window clearance system at Kasumbalesa.

The deal specifically targets truck queue times that have averaged 72 hours at the crossing, a delay that adds cost and risk for exporters moving copper cathode and cobalt concentrate from the DRC's Lualaba and Haut-Katanga provinces onto Zambian roads and rail lines bound for southern African ports.

Years of repeated fixes

The agreement builds on an earlier accord, signed in December 2025, establishing a framework for one-stop border posts at Kasumbalesa, Mokambo, Kipushi, Kambimba, Sakania and other crossings, under which officials from both countries would eventually co-locate to process trucks once rather than twice. It also follows a simplified trade regime for small-scale cross-border traders that the two governments launched at Kasumbalesa at the end of April 2026, and earlier commitments — not always fully honoured — to extend border operating hours and process 500 trucks a day.

Kasumbalesa's congestion has previously left more than 1,500 trucks stranded at a time, driven by mismatched customs systems, the rollout of an electronic seals clearance system on the DRC side, and the sheer volume of traffic converging on a single crossing that serves as the primary route for roughly a third of the DRC's copper cathode exports.

A test of political will

Both sides have signed similar commitments before with limited lasting effect, and a $110 million infrastructure modernisation project at the border, under way since early 2026, is meant to provide the physical capacity that political agreements alone cannot. For copper and cobalt producers on both sides of the border, the practical measure of success will be whether queue times actually fall from the current 72-hour average, rather than whether another agreement gets signed.

Sources

• Times of Zambia: Zambia Signs Trade Facilitation Agreement With Democratic Republic of Congo, 26 Aug 2026
• Freight News: Kasumbalesa – DRC and Zambia recommit to facilitating trade, 26 Aug 2026

Photo: The Kasumbalesa border town on the DRC-Zambia frontier, the main crossing for copper and cobalt exports. Narval Mabila (VOA), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.