TVC NEWS [ADDIS ABABA] - 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.
National Security Adviser Susan Rice
said last week the United States had concerns about Ethiopia's human rights
record and the electoral process.
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