Obama wraps up Senegal visit with food aid pledge

US President Barack Obama on Friday ended the first leg of his Africa tour by pledging more money to boost food security in West Africa, dpa reported. The US government and private companies will back new agricultural initiatives in the region, Obama said at an event organised by Feed the Future, a US government global hunger initiative. The US development agency USAID's current annual budget for Senegal is 60 million dollars. Dozens of Senegalese farmers, smallholders and entrepreneurs attended Friday's event. Many of them have been hit hard by poor crop harvests in the Sahel region, resulting in low earnings and under-nutrition. On Thursday, Obama held bilateral talks with Senegal's President Macky Sall. The pair discussed development and trade initiatives in Senegal, a country that Obama called "one of the most stable democracies in Africa." --SPA