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Why has China built a ghost town in Africa?
It was supposed to be a state-of-the-art city for 500,000 -- but eerie footage shows how a Chinese-built urbanization is at risk of becoming Africa's first 'ghost town'.
Constructed on the outskirts of Angola's capital city Luanda, Nova Cidade de Kimball has 750 eight-story blocks of flats, a dozen schools and more than 100 shop units.
But, crucially, it has no residents, and many of the nearby slum-dwellers cannot afford the £75,000 price-tag to move in.
This has sparked fears the £2.2billion project, a fraction of the cash China has poured into Africa in recent years, could lay abandoned for years to come.
It has also highlighted the increasing 'colonization' of Africa by China, seen to be wanting the resource-rich continent as a 'satellite state', in recent years.
It is said to be reminiscent of the West's imperial push in the 18th and 19th centuries, with critics pointing to trade deals with more than 40 countries.
They also flag up the provision of billions each year in loans to states on the continent, which extends China's political as well as its economic influence.
It is seeing local black workers either paid a pittance or pushed out completely in favor of Chinese laborers. And African shops are now flooded with cheap Chinese products.
Sebastiano Antonio, 17, who travels on a bus from an outlying area for three hours a day to get to one of the opened schools, told the BBC: 'I really like this place.
'It's got car parking, places for us to have games like football, basketball and handball. It's very quiet, much calmer than the other city, there's no criminality.'
But when asked if his family would move there, he said: 'No way, we can't afford this. It's impossible. And there is no work for my parents here.'
Kimball street sweeper Jack Francis, 32, added: 'Yes, it's a nice place for sure but to live here you need a lot of money. People like us don't have money like that.'
He has a point. How can someone who earns an average £1.30 per day afford luxury flats that range from £75,000 to £130,000.
It seems it's a question state-owned China International Trust and Investment Corporation, which built the 12,355 acres development in three years in exchange for oil, has not asked.
Footage shows brand new Angolan city designed for 500,000 lying empty | Mail Online
It was supposed to be a state-of-the-art city for 500,000 -- but eerie footage shows how a Chinese-built urbanization is at risk of becoming Africa's first 'ghost town'.
Constructed on the outskirts of Angola's capital city Luanda, Nova Cidade de Kimball has 750 eight-story blocks of flats, a dozen schools and more than 100 shop units.
But, crucially, it has no residents, and many of the nearby slum-dwellers cannot afford the £75,000 price-tag to move in.
This has sparked fears the £2.2billion project, a fraction of the cash China has poured into Africa in recent years, could lay abandoned for years to come.
It has also highlighted the increasing 'colonization' of Africa by China, seen to be wanting the resource-rich continent as a 'satellite state', in recent years.
It is said to be reminiscent of the West's imperial push in the 18th and 19th centuries, with critics pointing to trade deals with more than 40 countries.
They also flag up the provision of billions each year in loans to states on the continent, which extends China's political as well as its economic influence.
It is seeing local black workers either paid a pittance or pushed out completely in favor of Chinese laborers. And African shops are now flooded with cheap Chinese products.
Sebastiano Antonio, 17, who travels on a bus from an outlying area for three hours a day to get to one of the opened schools, told the BBC: 'I really like this place.
'It's got car parking, places for us to have games like football, basketball and handball. It's very quiet, much calmer than the other city, there's no criminality.'
But when asked if his family would move there, he said: 'No way, we can't afford this. It's impossible. And there is no work for my parents here.'
Kimball street sweeper Jack Francis, 32, added: 'Yes, it's a nice place for sure but to live here you need a lot of money. People like us don't have money like that.'
He has a point. How can someone who earns an average £1.30 per day afford luxury flats that range from £75,000 to £130,000.
It seems it's a question state-owned China International Trust and Investment Corporation, which built the 12,355 acres development in three years in exchange for oil, has not asked.
Footage shows brand new Angolan city designed for 500,000 lying empty | Mail Online
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