Barack Obama on Monday officially begins a two-day visit to Ethiopia, the first-ever trip by a US president to Africa’s second-most populous nation and the seat of the African Union.

Obama, who flew into a rainy Addis Ababa late on Sunday after a landmark trip to Kenya, his father’s birthplace, is to hold talks with the Ethiopian government, a key strategic ally but much criticised for its record on democracy and human rights.

He will also hold talks with regional leaders on the civil war in South Sudan in an attempt to build African support for decisive action against the war-torn country’s leaders if they reject an ultimatum to end the carnage by mid-August.

On Tuesday Obama will also become the first US president to address the African Union, the 54-member continental bloc, at its gleaming, Chinese-built headquarters.

Air Force One touched down at Addis Ababa’s international airport after a short flight north from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, and the president was greeted on the tarmac by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

AU Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has hailed what she said will be a “historic visit” and a “concrete step to broaden and deepen the relationship between the AU and the US”.

Ethiopia, like Kenya, has been on the frontline of the fight against the Somali-led, Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab. Both nations have troops in Somalia as part of an AU and US-backed force and are key security partners to Washington.

But the visit also comes two months after elections that saw the prime minister’s ruling coalition take every one of the 546 seats in Ethiopia’s parliament. The opposition, which lost its only seat, alleged the government used authoritarian tactics to guarantee victory.

The US State Department has noted Ethiopia’s “restrictions on freedom of expression,” as well as “politically motivated trials” and the “harassment and intimidation of opposition members and journalists”.

Read More: AFP