Boxy and nothing la-di-da

Parts unaffordable as Ethiopia bans the import of petrol-powered vehicles.

- Addis Ababa

Leaning under the hood, Tesfahun Assefa checks the oil and the radiator. All good. But when he climbs inside and starts the engine, the Lada coughs and kicks out thick black smoke. Tesfahun, a taxi driver in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, has been driving the iconic Soviet car for nine years.

The gear stick is unresponsive, the seats have holes and it struggles to exceed 40km/h on hills.

"This model is from 1987, I'm only three or four years older," he says with a smile, tapping the peeling bodywork.

The boxy, blue cars were once omnipresent in Addis Ababa and are still often spotted along its long avenues and alleyways. Their heyday was in the '70s and '80s when Ethiopia was ruled by the Derg, a Marxist-inspired military regime with close ties to the Soviet Union.