An engineer guides a train driver down a flimsy looking track at a maintenance complex in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.
Sudan was once home to Africa's largest railway network, but after decades of mismanagement and neglect most of it is currently out of service. Now, with the help of Chinese money and expertise, the government wants to rebuild the rail industry and restore some of its former glory.
There are just 60 trains left running for the state railway operator, the Sudanese Railway Corp. They cannot travel at more than 40 km an hour because the network's British-designed wooden sleepers and tracks, mostly laid between 1896 and 1930, are too weak.
South Sudanese families prepare to board one of the still-functioning trains, which will transport them to Wau in South Sudan.
Khartoum hopes that modernising the railways will help bolster Sudan’s economy, which has been plunged into crisis by the loss of most of the country's oil production since it split from South Sudan in 2011.
An employee works inside the control room of Sudan's main railway station in Khartoum, where a daily cargo train has started running to Atbara, some 300 km north of the capital.
The development is an initial sign of progress, as officials hope to renew between 1,000 and 2,000 km of track across the country within two years.
An out-of-service train stands at the Sudan Railway maintenance complex in Khartoum. With peeling paint and no wheels, it now a relic of a former era.
In its heyday, Sudan’s rail network used to cover over 5,000 km (3,100 miles) but it began to decline in the 1980s partly as the result of political disputes. As the network began to crumble, more than 20,000 workers lost their jobs within a decade.
. Khartoum, Sudan. REUTERS/Stringer
Chinese workers busy themselves at Shanghai Hui Bo Investment Co’s factory in Khartoum. The plant is charged with manufacturing railway lines for the development of Sudan's network, and is currently producing 1,200 concrete sleepers a day, according to its Sudanese manager Sharaf Nasser.
China, Sudan's biggest aid donor and one of its biggest investors, is playing a significant role in renewing the African country's railways.
"We have a contract with the Chinese for 100 passenger and 100 cargo cars and another deal for 50 cars for oil tanks," said Sudanese transport minister Ahmed Babiker Nahar.
