The crowd was always going to be onside, but U.S. President Barack Obama was in typically inspirational form when he visited Kenya this weekend, the country where his father was born.

Addressing a crowd of thousands -- and millions more on television and radio -- Obama raised a cheer by declaring himself "proud to be the first Kenyan-American president of the United States".

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday praised key African ally Ethiopia for its fight against Shebab militants in Somalia, but also challenged Addis Ababa on its democratic record.

Obama is on the first-ever trip by a U.S. president to Africa's second most populous nation, a close strategic partner for Washington credited for beating back the Al-Qaida-affiliated Islamists but a country also much criticized for its rights record.

U.S. President Barack Obama landed in Ethiopia on Sunday, beginning a two-day stay and becoming the first American leader to visit Africa's second most populous nation.

Air Force One touched down at Addis Ababa's international airport after a short flight north from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, and the president was greeted on the tarmac by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

The streets of the Kenyan capital were empty on Friday afternoon ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's arrival, with a massive security operation under way to protect him from Al-Qaida-linked Somali militants.

Obama, making his first visit as president to his father's birthplace, will address an entrepreneurship summit and hold talks on trade and investment, security and counter-terrorism, and democracy and human rights.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven was rushed to hospital on Thursday after landing back in Stockholm from Ethiopia, officials said.

Lofven became "seriously nauseated" while flying home from Addis Ababa and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance after his plane touched down in the Swedish capital, his spokeswoman Anne Ekberg told the Aftonbladet daily.

Five bloggers and journalists held in Ethiopia for more than a year have been freed after the charges were dropped, their lawyer said Thursday, weeks before U.S. President Barack Obama is due to visit the country.

In a separate case, journalist Reeyot Alemu, jailed in June 2011 after being found guilty of plotting a terrorist act, was released on Thursday, campaigners said.

Shebab militants killed at least 14 workers in northern Kenya on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a wave of attacks in the east African nation by the Somali-led Islamists.

The attack occurred just outside the town of Mandera in Kenya's far northeastern region, which borders Ethiopia and war-torn Somalia, and comes a little more than two weeks before U.S. President Barack Obama is due to make his first presidential visit to Kenya, where his father was born.

Britain said Thursday its relationship with Ethiopia was being put at risk by the country's year-long detention of opposition leader Andargachew Tsege, an Ethiopian-British dual national.

Addis Ababa said last week that Tsege, 60, who is on death row, would not be pardoned but might escape execution, after reports he was ailing in solitary confinement.

Ethiopia's ruling party and its allies achieved a clean sweep in last month's general election, winning all 546 parliamentary seats, the final results showed Monday.

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn scored a landslide victory, stripping the opposition of the one seat it had held in the outgoing chamber, said Merga Bekana, chairman of the electoral board.

U.S. President Barack Obama will in late July become the first sitting American leader to visit Ethiopia and the headquarters of the African Union, the White House said Friday.

Obama's trip to Addis Ababa will come directly after an already announced trip to Kenya, his first as president to his father's homeland, press secretary Josh Earnest announced.