The government of Ethiopia has begun preliminary work on a railway line to the port cities of Eritrea.
Ahmed Shide, the minister of finance, said a feasibility study had been launched and the World Bank was behind the project. The railway would connect the Ethiopian network with the ports of Assab and Massawa.
Shide was speaking during the first Ethiopian-Italian Business Forum, held in Addis Ababa last week. Emanuela Del Re, Italy’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, said her government would consider taking a role in the project.
In January, Italy said it would provide assistance for a 736km link between Addis Ababa and Massawa. The agreement was made during a visit to Rome by Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed.
The route is expected to pass through Mekelle, capital of the northern Tigray region, then through to Awash to the Red Sea.
The project is expected to be one of the dividends from the peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea which Abiy agreed in July last year.
The treaty led to immediate plans to reconstruct two roads between the countries, and the development of two ports in Eritrea. At present Ethiopia relies on a single rail line to Djibouti for access to the sea.
Image: The port of Massawa (Reinhard Dietrich/CC1.0)
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Italy is back to help Eritrea, Ethiopia is just an afterthought. Why is the link to Massawa and not to Assab? Why should the link go through Mekelle and not through Dessie or Afar?