Ethiopia and Djibouti open first fully electrified cross-border railway line in Africa

Ethiopia and Djibouti have launched the first fully electrified cross-border railway line in Africa.

It links Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, to the Red Sea port of Djibouti - a stretch of more than 750km (466 miles).

Travelling at 120km/h, the new service cuts the journey time down from three days by road to about 12 hours.

The $3.4bn (£2.7bn) project was built with the help of funding from a Chinese bank and will have Chinese staff.

The track runs parallel to the abandoned Ethio-Djibouti railway, built more than 100 years ago.

The railway is the first step in a vast 5,000km-long network of rail which Ethiopia hopes to build by 2020, connecting it to Kenya, Sudan and South Sudan.

SOURCE: BBC News