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Terror concerns head Obama’s Ethiopia trip

US President Barack Obama heads to Ethiopia on Sunday, the first American president to visit Africa’s second most populous nation and a key but much maligned ally in the fight against terrorism.

Obama, who arrived in neighbouring Kenya on Friday, is expected to leave for Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa late on Sunday for a two-day visit, where he will also be the first US leader to address the African Union, the 54-member continental bloc.

“This is the first time a sitting (US) president is visiting Ethiopia,” Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Tewolde Mulugeta said. “This will bring the relationship between our two countries to a new high.”

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Through the tinted windows of his bomb-proof presidential limousine, nicknamed “The Beast”, Obama will be able to 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 during the 1984 famine, experiencing nearly double-digit economic growth and huge infrastructure investment – making the country one of Africa’s top-performing economies and a magnet for foreign investment.

Obama is slated to address leaders at the AU’s gleaming Chinese-built headquarters as he wraps up his Africa trip on Tuesday, with remarks that may touch on Africa’s democratic deficit.

AU Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said it would be an “historic visit” and be a “concrete step to broaden and deepen the relationship between the AU and the US”.

Obama is also expected to meet top mediators pushing peace efforts in neighbouring South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, which is gripped by a 19-month civil war marked by horrific atrocities.

The visit to Ethiopia comes two months after elections that saw the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn take every one of the 546 seats in the parliament.

The opposition, which lost its only seat, alleged the government had used authoritarian tactics to guarantee victory.

Rights groups have warned Obama’s visit could add credibility to a government they accuse of suppressing democratic rights, including the jailing of journalists and critics, with anti-terrorism legislation said to be used to stifle peaceful dissent.

In an appeal to Obama before his visit, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was “extremely concerned about the fate of those who remain behind bars”, arguing that “Ethiopia’s fight against terrorism should not come at the price of freedom of information and of the press”.

Amnesty International said Obama should raise with Ethiopia the “profoundly repressive policies” of the government.

-AAP

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