ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — The Chinese-built railway Ethiopia-Djibouti railway officially opened on Wednesday, marking the latest instance of the Sino-African cooperation. <br /> <br />The 750-km railway links the Red Sea port of Djibouti to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. According to Xinhua, it is Africa’s first electric railway. The trains are powered by overhead wires. <br /> <br />The train can travel at a top speed of 120 km per hour, which is much slower than other high-speed trains in the world. Nonetheless, the railway is expected to reduce a drive time of seven days between the two places to just 10 hours. <br /> <br />According to Xinhua, the railway will be managed by a consortium of Chinese companies for about six years until Ethiopians are trained enough to take over. The Chinese management aims to create new jobs for Ethiopia and Djibouti.
