Obama to press Ethiopia on terror war
NAIROBI, KENYA President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Ethiopia on Sunday, highlighting the East African country’s increasing value to combat Islamic extremism despite a poor human rights record.
“Obama’s visit means our country is a safe place to invest and do trade,” said Dawit Betty, 25, a student in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa. “Ethiopia has been forgotten for so long. The coming of the U.S. president will bring a new beginning for this country.”
The country’s economic heft is growing, so Ethiopian leaders are eager to hear about Obama’s plans for trade, but discussions Monday are likely to focus on terror threats facing Africa. Obama is likely to urge Ethiopian leaders to keep pressure on alShabab, the al- Qaedalinked terrorist group that has staged deadly attacks in neighboring Kenya and Somalia, including one Sunday by a suicide bomber outside a hotel in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu that killed nine people.
“He is going now to Ethiopia because they need to act quickly on al-Shabab,” said Mario Aguilar, a political professor at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Though Obama probably won’t discuss human rights extensively, his presence calls attention to government abuses, said Ethiopian civil rights activist Ellani Jembere, who hopes Obama will raise the issue privately during talks with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
“We need him to address electoral reforms and push the government to increase democratic space,” he said. Tuesday, Obama is slated to address the 54-member African Union at its headquarters in Addis Ababa about the fight against terrorism and the importance of creating greater economic opportunities for people, so they won’t be lured by terror groups. Ethiopian peacekeeping troops have clashed with al-Shabab in Somalia as part of an African Union mission to root out the terrorist group. Obama’s trip will call attention to the African Union’s cooperation in combating al- Shabab and mediating conflicts.
“The African Union … has done significant diplomatic work in the last few years,” Aguilar said. “It has always been ignored by Western powers. I think this defines the actual purpose of the visit. It is to engage, in a sense, with Africa in a different way.”