News media freedom and other human rights issues were on the agenda for Obama’s visit, but the Ethiopian government spokesman, Redwan Hussien, said “subjects of mutual interest”, such as investment, trade and terrorism, would take precedence when the president met prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn on Monday. Despite a driving rain, crowds gathered along the roadways to greet him as he arrived Sunday for the first-ever visit to Ethiopia by a sitting American president.
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On Monday, Obama will hold talks with the leaders of Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, along with the chairperson of the African Union Commission and the foreign minister of Sudan.
“We don’t want this visit to be used to sanitise an administration that has been known to violate human rights”, Amnesty International’s East Africa researcher Abdullahi Halakhe said.
Mr Obama said he was frank in his discussions with Ethiopian leaders about the need to allow political opponents to operate freely.
“Our commitment to democracy is real and not skin deep”, he said, adding that Ethiopia is a “fledgling democracy, we are coming out of centuries of undemocratic practices”.
“Authorities will in turn be eager to deflect attention towards the country’s record of growth and poverty reduction as well as increased security cooperation with the United States”, he said.
But Ethiopia, bordered by the violent and faltering states Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, is also a bastion of security in a region roiled by war. “We don’t have a lot of time to wait”. Obama is traveling on a two…
“The Republican Party is shocked, and yet that arises out of a culture where those kinds of outrageous attacks have become far too commonplace and get circulated non-stop through the Internet and talk radio, news outlets”, Obama said at a joint press conference with the Ethiopian prime minister here at the Jubilee Palace.
And opposition parties do not expect Obama’s visit to result in political change in Ethiopia, said Woretaw Wassie, head of finance for the Semayawi Party. Possible steps are said to include an arms embargo and worldwide sanctions on key individuals. The Committee to Protect Journalists says Ethiopia is the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists in Africa, after Eritrea.
Ethiopia has also been an important U.S. partner in the effort to end South Sudan’s civil war.
U.S. officials have been laying the groundwork for Obama’s participation in the meeting for weeks, with calls to regional leaders by Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, among others.
South Sudan’s rivals – President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, who will not be at the meeting – effectively face an ultimatum, a “final best offer”, according to one senior administration official.
Ethiopia’s powerful military has been a vital bulwark against the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab insurgent group in Somalia, which was responsible for Sunday’s bombing in Mogadishu.
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The ethno-political conflict has since spurred a humanitarian crisis, throwing country into turmoil four years after its creation.
