A herd of donkeys are squeezed through a rail crossing around Debre Zeit road. The light railway system built with Chinese financial aid for 475 million dollars came to a grinding halt two months ago after only eight of its 41 trains were operational due to the lack of spare parts. Repair and maintenance of the trains required 60 million dollars leaving the 32km long tracks largely empty. China came to the rescue once more agreeing to provide 155 million dollar worth of spare parts in late February.