The construction of the railway started prior to WW1 but the line was not completed through to the Congolese border until 1920, a distance of 1186kms; and it was nearly destroyed by another war, this time the Angolan Civil War. After this only some 340km were operational and by 2001 this had been reduced to the 34kms between Lobito and Benguela (Wikipedia). The line has since been rebuilt throughout by the Chinese.

A map showing the Benguelas relationship to other lines in South Central Africa can be seen here

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