It is also a key ally on terror, and retains long-standing ties with the US, which go back to the John F. Kennedy-backed airlifts of the 1960s that saw hundreds of students benefit from American scholarships. Many of them came back to occupy key positions in the post-independent government, and went on to shape the country’s capitalist leanings.

Ethiopia’s economy may be statist, but it has consistently chalked up double growth figures, and is a major player regionally as the host of the African Union, and also in security initiatives such as stabilising South Sudan and Somalia.

But for all their geopolitical and market importance it will the first time a sitting US president has visited either of the two countries.