A new $4 billion line, built and mostly paid for by China, opens today, cutting journeys from Addis Ababa to the coast from two days to ten hours. A war with Eritrea at the turn of the millennium cut off that route to the sea; now 90% of landlocked Ethiopia’s trade flows through the tiny port nation of Djibouti. The mega-project should burnish Ethiopia’s reputation as a development success: manufacturing grew by an average of 10% a year from 2006 to 2014. Chinese shoemakers and Bangladeshi garment factories will be among the exporters to use the new line. The 10.2m people who now depend on food aid imported through Djibouti, amid the worst drought in 50 years, will benefit too. The authorities will be glad of a distraction: 52 people died last weekend in the restless region of Oromia, in a stampede caused by botched crowd-control.