Barack Obama on Tuesday condemned African leaders who refuse to give up power and urged the continent to end "the cancer of corruption", in the first ever address to the African Union by a US president.
But Obama said the rest of the world also needed to change its approach to Africa by boosting fair trade and not just providing aid handouts, and vowed that the United States stood with the region to defeat terrorism and end conflict.
The speech marked the end of a short tour that has seen Obama visit Kenya, his father's birthplace, and Ethiopia, from where he flew out on Air Force One after the speech.
Both are key security allies in the fight against Somalia's Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants, but they were also challenged on concerns over democracy, human rights and graft.
"Africa's democratic progress is also at risk when leaders refuse to step aside when their terms end," Obama said, drawing huge applause and cheers from some sections of the audience in the AU's Nelson Mandela hall.
"No one should be president for life," he said, explaining that he was personally relishing handing over office in 18 months.
"Now let me be honest with you: I do not understand this. I am in my second term... I love my work, but under our constitution, I cannot run again. I actually think I'm a pretty good president, I think if I ran again I could win, but I can't," he said.
"And, I'll be honest with you, I'm looking forward to life after being president. I won't have such a big security detail all the time, it means I can take a walk, it means I can spend time with my family.
"The point is I don't understand why people want to stay so long. Especially when they've got a lot of money," he said, drawing another huge cheer from the hall -- packed with diplomats but also many civil society activists.
according to gist360.com
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