KINSHASA/DAR ES SALAAM, June 29 (WNM) - Tanzania has suspended the construction of the $10bn Bagamoyo port project, citing the onerous financial conditions put in place by Beijing.

The project, which has been initiated four years ago and was set to be run by China Merchants Holding International, would have been the largest port in East Africa.

Tanzania’s president John Magufuli has accused the Chinese project backers of presenting “exploitative and awkward” terms in exchange for financing. Chinese financiers set “tough conditions that can only be accepted by mad people,” Magufuli told local media.

“They told us once they build the port, there should be no other port to be built all the way from Tanga to Mtwara south,” Magufuli told a delegation of business people at State House in Dar es Salaam earlier this month, according to Splash247.

“They want us to give them a guarantee of 33 years and a lease of 99 years, and we should not question whoever comes to invest there once the port is operational. They want to take the land as their own but we have to compensate them for drilling construction of that port,” he said.

On Wednesday a court in Kenya halted plans for the construction of a $2 billion Chinese-backed coal power plant near the island town of Lamu, a UNESCO World Heritage site famed for its twisting alleyways and stunning coastline.

The plant, which according to the Telegraph activists say would have increased Kenya's greenhouse gas emissions by 700 percent, was cancelled after judges ruled the environmental assessment was inadequate. 

Other African projects, including massive rail construction projects in Ethiopia and Kenya, have also come under scrutiny, leading China to write-off some loans.