The 750km (460-mile) railway, built by two Chinese companies, which will link Addis Ababa to the Red Sea port city of Djibouti, was inaugurated at a new station just outside the Ethiopian capital. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/ReutersThe new railway will take products between Ethiopia and Djibouti in about 10 hours, a far cry from the current excruciating multi-day trip along a congested, pot-holed road. It takes two or three days for a truck to come from Djibouti,” said Ethiopian importer Tingrit Worku. Both countries benefit from economic integration, with Ethiopia gaining access to the sea and Djibouti gaining access to Ethiopia’s emerging market of 95 million people. An earlier version said incorrectly that the new route was “the first electrified railway in Africa”.

Source: The Guardian October 06, 2016 02:37 UTC