Ethiopia told to 
embrace 
openness

His call comes at the beginning of a trip that human rights groups say legitimises an oppressive government.

“When all voices are being heard, when people know they are being included in the political process, that makes a country more successful,” Mr Obama said during a joint news conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Mr Obama’s trip marks the first visit by a sitting US president to Ethiopia, a fast-growing economy once defined by poverty and famine.

Later, Mr Obama launched a personal push for peace in South Sudan.

Mr Obama met with African leaders for urgent talks 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,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of time to wait.”

Ethiopia has been among the most active countries in East Africa seeking to end the crisis in South Sudan, whose warring factions face an August 17 deadline to accept a regional peace and power-sharing deal.

South Sudan was thrown into conflict in December 2013 by a clash between forces loyal to former vice president Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, and president Salva Kiir, a Dinka. The fighting has spurred a humanitarian crisis that threatens the country’s survival just four years after its inception.