Cover Story: How a China-Built Railway Is Connecting Ethiopia to the World

In the pre-dawn glow at the Akaki station just outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, people wait to board a train that quite literally connects Africa’s second most populous country to the world.

Utilizing the train has become a daily ritual for passengers – and more importantly for freight handlers - since 2018, when the Chinese-built Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway, the first electrified cross-border rail line in Africa, was launched, linking the land-locked Ethiopia with the Port of Doraleh in neighboring Djibouti and the Red Sea.