Odon Jadot

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Odon Jadot (13 April 1884 – 16 April 1968) was a Belgian railway engineer and administrator who built more than 1,650 kilometres of railway in the Belgian Congo. The lines carried copper from Katanga to the sea at Matadi, Dilolo, and Beira, and they helped move troops during the two world wars.

He was born in Liège, studied civil and electrical engineering, and joined the Congo railway company BCK in 1909. He learned from British practice and quickly worked on important projects, including the line from Elisabethville to the Kambove copper mine.

During World War I he helped build the port at Albertville on Lake Tanganyika. After the war, Jadot became general manager of BCK in 1924 and led rapid expansion. He oversaw the creation of the Benguela line from Lobito to Dilolo and the connecting routes toward the Kasai and Léopoldville, improving access to the ocean.

The railway network grew under his leadership, with the BCK, CFL and LKD forming a larger Katanga–Dilolo–Léopoldville system by the 1950s. He continued planning new links and supported wartime shipments of uranium ore. After returning to Belgium in 1945, he remained involved in Congo rail plans.

Odon Jadot died in Kraainem, Belgium, in 1968 at age 84.