US President Obama arrives in Ethiopia
US president Barack Obama arrived in Ethiopia on Sunday (July 26) on the second leg of his Africa tour.
He was greeted at Bole airport by the country’s prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn.
Obama is expected to hold bilateral talks with Desalegn on trade and security issues in the region.
Ethiopia, sandwiched between volatile Somalia and Sudan, is seen as a key security ally for the United States.
Brought to its knees by “Red Terror” communist purges in the 1970s and famine in the 1980s, Ethiopia has been transformed in the last quarter of a century, becoming one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.
However, rights groups say economic achievements are at the expense of political freedoms.
Ethiopia’s ruling party swept a parliamentary election in which the opposition complained of harassment. The government denied the claim.
