The route has a length of 3,523 km (2,189 mi) crossing Angola, the most southerly part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and central Mozambique.

The route links mining areas of DR Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe and agricultural production areas of Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe to the Atlantic port of Lobito and Indian Ocean port of Beira.

The route is also served by a rail link running parallel to it for much of its length except between Kafue and Harare, though it too has been damaged in wars and its western half, the Benguela Railway, temporarily stopped operations in 2001 before resuming in March 2018.

It is the N1 route for the remainder of the DR Congo section, through Likasi and Lubumbashi, to the border town of Kasumbalesa (DR Congo) in the Copperbelt Region, where it crosses the near borderline into the Republic of Zambia and the border town of Kasumbalesa (Zambia).

In 2023, the governments of Zambia, DR Congo and Angola agreed to a 30-year concession for the 1700 km section of the parallel Benguela railway (Lobito Corridor) from Kolwezi to the Atlantic coast (Lobito; Benguela) in order to link the landlocked Copperbelt Region with its closest ocean (the Atlantic Ocean) for trade,[2] as Zambia and DR Congo are two large producers of both copper and cobalt.