Feb
16
Filed Under (General) by Rob on 16-02-2008

Yes, it’s official. Today was a very historic moment for the country, as George Bush set foot on Beninese soil – the first US president ever to do so.

Click here to see the Yahoo News article and a photo his historic meeting with the Beninese president, Yayi Boni. He flew in at around 8:00am and out again at 11:00am. A friend of ours managed to get a photo of one of the jets as it was taking off. Have a look – it’s not something you see every day in Benin!

jet-2.JPG

The US has pledged a significant sum of money to help the development of Benin, which is great news. Here’s what the USA Today website says about it:

“Hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars are helping to pay for an aggressive anti-malaria campaign, the training of tens of thousands of teachers and reforms to Benin’s judiciary, port and financial systems.”

Nice one! Read the whole article here. His visit was part of a tour of five African countries. From Benin, he flew off to Tanzania and will then visit Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia. Read more and see a map on the BBC website.

Did we catch a glimpse? No! Didn’t even try, as we’d heard the security was tight. However, it was eerily quiet in Cotonou this morning and when we took a drive past the airport at around 11:30am there were still lots of important-looking folk milling about outside.

And for francophones, voici quelques informations sur la visite de Bush au Bénin.

That’s all folks!



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