INTERNATIONAL donors have agreed to fund repairs to a critical section of the Nacala Railway in Mozambique, which connects Malawi with the Indian Ocean. The 77 km between Cuamba and the border at Nanyuci is in poor condition, although the 538 km from Nacala to Cuamba was rehabilitated over the past 15 years at a cost of US$254m.

Strong pressure to restore the line has come from the World Food Programme, which needs to move between 10000 and 15000 tonnes of food every month to Malawi, where millions face starvation following a drought (RG 9.02 p474).

The railway and Nacala port are run by the SDCN consortium, which includes the backers of Malawi's Central East African Railway: Edlow Resources of Bermuda, Railroad Development Corp of the USA and Tertir of Portugal. SDCN has costed repairs to the missing link and the 154 km branch from Cuamba to Lichinga in Niassa province at US$52m.

In September Britain and Canada agreed to donate US$5·6m, and last month the US Overseas Private Investment Corp discussed a loan of US$22m to SDCN. The total cost includes eight new locos, but this may have to be increased to 10 after two were destroyed in a head-on collision between two freight trains near Rapale on September 27.