Zambia and DRC agree on 24 hour border operations at main border crossing points

During a bilateral meeting on the traffic situation at the Kasumbalesa Border held on 9 June at the Protea Hotel in Chingola, in the Zambia's Copperbelt Province, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have agreed that with effect from 10th June, 2022, revenue authorities and other border agencies of both countries will extend operations at the Kasumbalesa, Sakania, Mokambo and Kipushi border posts on a 24-hour basis.

The measure has been adopted to ease congestion at these border posts, where increasing trade volumes recently resulted in high traffic congestion and frustration among transporters due to the long queues faced, especially at Kasumbalesa, the main point for transit of copper and cobalt between the two countries. According to the declarations made by authorities from Ministries of Transport of Zambia and DRC, this measure, hopefully, will lead to the clearance of a minimum 800 trucks daily through the four sites.

The two countries also committed to put in place smart border operational tools and hard infrastructure interventions to further ease and reduce the cost of cross-border trade, even though no indication has been provided so far regarding both the timeline and the sources of funding that will be exploited for implementing such measures.