US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is embarking on a seven-nation tour of Africa to affirm the Obama administration's commitment to tackling trouble spots across the continent.

Mrs Clinton kicks off the 11-day trip - her longest overseas journey to date as the top US diplomat - in Kenya where she will address an African trade and development forum, meet top officials and see the beleaguered president of lawless Somalia's interim government.

Kenya, the homeland of President Barack Obama's late father, is struggling to overcome political and tribal divisions laid bare in early 2008 after disputed elections between the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Officials say she will also offer US support to Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, whose embattled government is trying to face down Islamist extremists accused of links with al Qaida who threaten to destabilise the Horn of Africa region.

"We think that the problems in southern Somalia have started to bleed regionally and internationally," the top US diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, said last week.

She will then visit oil-rich Angola, one of southern Africa's largest energy producers and a major supplier of crude and national gas to the US market. From Angola, Mrs Clinton heads to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mrs Clinton will visit Goma in eastern Congo before moving on to Nigeria, another major US energy supplier that has been struggling with rampant corruption.

In Liberia, which is recovering from 20 years of civil strife, Mrs Clinton will show US support for President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the only female African president, and offer backing for development and security reform.

Her last stop will be Cape Verde, a group of nine small islands off Senegal with a population of less than half a million that is often hailed as a success story for African democracy despite its lack of natural resources.

Source: Press Association

Share this article with others: