In Ethiopia, Tillerson aims to show US cares about Africa

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA >> President Donald Trump hasn’t spoken much about Africa, and what he’s said has been far from flattering. It falls to his top diplomat, on his first official visit to the continent, to show the United States still cares.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived at sunset Wednesday in Ethiopia’s capital, the initial stop on a five-country tour that will also take him to Djibouti and Kenya in the east before heading farther west to Chad and Nigeria.

He was greeted at the airport Addis Ababa on a red carpet by the Ethiopian foreign minister before taking a motorcade to his hotel.

Complicating Tillerson’s mission is the vulgarity that Trump used about Africa during a White House meeting in January with U.S. lawmakers. Trump had questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa as he rejected an immigration deal, according to one participant and to people briefed on the Oval Office conversation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss it.

Tillerson will aim to mend that perception as he becomes the most senior U.S. official to set foot in Africa since Trump took office more than a year ago.

Tillerson, in a speech just before departing Washington, said Africa’s rapid economic growth and fast-rising populations mean its future is increasingly linked to America’s. He said the U.S. was committed to helping, but that prosperity and basic stability would be impossible until the security situation is brought under control.

“My firm belief is that there is ample opportunity on the continent for economic growth, for greater prosperity, and for responding to global challenges through mutually respectful partnerships,” Tillerson said.