By Tesfa Mogessie
ADDIS ABABA
The United States on Wednesday pledged to give its support to free and fair elections held in African countries.
"We are working closely with the African Union to make elections peaceful and transparent, according to the will of the people," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a video conference with African reporters.
She noted that a number of African countries would hold elections this year, including Nigeria, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.
"The U.S. will do everything in its power to ensure electoral transparency," Thomas-Greenfield said.
"We are working in Africa to help make election commissions independent so that nobody can complain of election rigging," she added.
The U.S. diplomat said her country was working to combat the threat posed by the Boko Haram militant group with a view to ensuring that next month's election in Nigeria went smoothly.
The U.S., she said, was also working closely with Cameroon and Mali against Boko Haram, which has waged a six-year insurgency in Nigeria that has killed thousands of people.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Douglas Frantz, for his part, said objective reporting and independent journalism could make a significant contribution to holding fair and democratic elections.
-South Sudan-
Thomas-Greenfield, for her part, hailed efforts by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to restore peace to conflict-ridden South Sudan.
Desalegn is the current chairman of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African regional bloc that has been mediating peace talks between South Sudan's warring camps.
"We're working closely with the governments of the region to look for a solution," she said.
South Sudan, which won its independence from Sudan in 2011, has been shaken by violence since late 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused Riek Machar, his sacked vice-president, of leading a failed coup attempt against his regime.
Tens of thousands have reportedly been killed in the subsequent violence, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes, according to recent UN estimates.
