Obama leaves South Africa for Tanzania

2013-07-01 79

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U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday (July 1) left Cape Town aboard presidential jet Air Force One, bound for Tanzania.

Obama was in South Africa on the second leg of a three-nation Africa trip including Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

The U.S. leader and his family visited the bleak former prison of Robben Island to pay tribute to ex-inmate and former president Nelson Mandela, now critically ill in hospital.

The president, the first African-American U.S. head of state, said Mandela's struggle against apartheid paved the way for freedom and opportunity well beyond South Africa's borders.

In Cape Town, the president announced a $7 billion U.S. initiative to double access to electric power on a continent where only one in three people have electricity.

This would include the renewal of an agreement to cut tariffs on African exports to the United States.

While in Cape Town, Obama also visited a health centre

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