Dear Colleagues,
Greetings of peace and blessing from URI Africa. This is to inform you that URI Africa took part at the addressing of President Obama at the African Union.
President Barack Obama ended his historic tour of East Africa with a speech Tuesday at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. It was the first time a sitting American president addressed the 54-member regional bloc, which promotes peace and security throughout Africa. Obama said it was time for the world to change its approach to Africa during his keynote speech.
“I stand before you as a proud American. I also stand before you as the son of an African,” Obama said during his address Tuesday. “A half century into this independence era, it is long past time to put aside old stereotypes of an Africa forever mired in poverty and conflict. The world must recognize Africa’s extraordinary progress."
The U.S. president embarked on the five-day, two-nation trip to Africa last Friday, starting with a visit to Kenya, the homeland of his late father. It was the first time Obama traveled to Kenya during his presidency. While in the capital city of Nairobi, Obama co-hosted the sixth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Obama and his high-profile entourage flew to Ethiopia Sunday, making history once again as the first sitting U.S. president to visit the country. While in the capital city, Obama met with African leaders, including African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, to discuss regional terrorism and South Sudan’s civil war. He also held a joint press conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, during which they expressed continued cooperation between their countries on trade and economic partnership, counter-terrorism and intelligence, and democratization.
The president also came face-to-face with a 3.2 million-year-old piece of history at the National Palace. He viewed -- and even touched -- the skeleton of "Lucy," the female Australopithecus afarensis discovered by an American anthropologist in Ethiopia in 1974. Lucy is an early hominin, the most complete skeleton of a human ancestor discovered to date, and one of the most significant breakthroughs in the study of early humans.
May Peace Prevail in Africa!
