Ethiopian PM Begins Charm Offensive In US

Enthusiastic supporters of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have assembled outside the US State Department in Washington DC as he begins a tour of three cities.

Supporters of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rally for US support outside the State Department on June 26, 2018 in Washington, DC.

After the US capital, Prime Minister Abiy will visit Los Angeles and Minneapolis, which both have large Ethiopian communities.

He is in the country to drum up political and economic support from the Ethiopian diaspora in the US - census data shows there were 215,060 Ethiopian-born people living in the US at the last count in 2016.

They are an important source of revenue, reportedly sending $4bn (£3bn) to Ethiopia annually.

Before the prime minister's appointment in April, members of the Ethiopian diaspora showed their anger at the state of affairs by freezing remittances to their home country.

But the new leader's reformist agenda appears to have won some over.





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