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After Kenya, Obama begins Ethiopia, Africa Union visit
U.S. President Barack Obama landed in Ethiopia on Sunday, beginning a two-day stay and becoming the first American leader to visit Africa’s second most populous nation.
Obama’s visit will include talks with the Ethiopian government, a key strategic U.S. ally. Obama will also become the first U.S. president to address the African Union (AU), the 54-member continental bloc, at its gleaming new, headquarters. He will also hold talks with regional leaders on the confilct in South Sudan.
AU Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma hailed what she said will be an “historic visit” and a “concrete step to broaden and deepen the relationship between the AU and the United States.”
While Kenya launched one of the biggest security operations ever seen in the capital Nairobi to host Obama from Friday evening to Sunday, the habitual reach of Ethiopia’s powerful security forces meant there was little obvious extra fanfare ahead of his arrival.
Ethiopia, like Kenya, has been on the frontline of the fight against the Somali-led, al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab. Both nations have troops in Somalia as part of an AU backed force, and are key security partners to Washington.
South Sudan Peace Push
Through the tinted windows of his bomb-proof presidential limousine, nicknamed “The Beast,” Obama will see Addis Ababa’s construction boom of tower blocks, as well as sub-Saharan Africa’s first modern tramway.
Ethiopia has come far from the global headlines generated by the 1984 famine, experiencing double-digit economic growth and huge infrastructure investment – making the country one of Africa’s top-performing economies and a magnet for both local and foreign investment.
On Monday Obama will try to build African support for tough action against South Sudan’s conflicting leaders if they reject an August peace ultimatum.
Obama will meet with leaders from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda as well as Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour in Addis Ababa to try and build a collective front to end the 19-month-old conflict in the world’s youngest nation.
Signalling a deeper commitment to ending the violence that has forced multitudes from their homes, Obama is expected to make the case for tougher sanctions and a possible arms embargo.
