President Barack Obama to address the African Union

President Barack Obama began his day Tuesday with a tour of a food manufacturing plant in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the largest recipients of US emergency and development food aid and the country participates in a US government programme to combat hunger worldwide.

Ethiopia is also the home of the African Union (AU) and President Obama will address the continent’s leaders from the organisation's new headquarters in the capital, Addis Ababa today. It will be the first time that a sitting American president addresses the African Union.

Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser said the AU plays a leading role on an array of global issues, including peace and security, health and agriculture. She said Obama wanted to visit the AU and address the continent because the US has come to work very closely with the union on many of these issues.

Obama will also meet one-on-one with Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission. She was among regional leaders Obama met with Monday to discuss the civil strife in neighboring South Sudan.

While in Ethiopia, President Barack Obama launched a personal push for peace in South Sudan on Monday, convening African leaders for urgent talks in neighbouring Ethiopia aimed at keeping the world's newest nation from collapsing amid civil war.

“The possibilities of renewed conflict in a region that has been torn by conflict for so long, and has resulted in so many deaths, is something that requires urgent attention from all of us,'' Obama said. “We don't have a lot of time to wait.'' The talks on South Sudan came on the sidelines of Obama's visit to Ethiopia.

Obama's speech at the AU on Tuesday will close a five-day, two-nation tour of Africa that began Friday when he landed in Kenya.

The President traveled to Kenya to attend a US sponsored business development summit, but the trip was also a homecoming of sorts. Many lined the streets in Kenya and Ethiopia to welcome Obama as his motorcade drove by.

In both Kenya and Ethiopia, Obama challenged the country's leaders to clean up their governments to help attract investment. He also pressed them to uphold human rights and basic democratic freedoms.

Obama became the first sitting US President to visit both countries. He arrives back in Washington early Wednesday.

(AP)