President to meet Mandela on Africa trip

President Mary McAleese will begin a two-week official visit to Africa next weekend, it emerged today.

The head of state’s itinerary will focus on Irish aid projects in Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania and she will also meet with Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela.

A spokesperson said: “The president’s itinerary will focus on visits to local health, education and commercial projects run by Irish aid agencies like Concern, Trocaire and others.

“There will also be ceremonial engagements as well as contacts with Irish communities and business people.”

She will meet former South African leader Mr Mandela, who lives in Mozambique, on June 14.

Mrs McAleese will also visit an old slave market in Zanzibar – once a major slaving centre in Africa.

The president will also attend the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, sitting in Tanzania.

She will pay a visit to the nomadic Masai tribe in Tanzania, whose leaders were educated in NUI Maynooth.

The president will carry out an engagement at a de-mining project in Mozambique – believed to be the most heavily-mined country after Cambodia.

Mr McAleese previously visited Africa in 2001 when her itinerary focused on Irish missionary work.

Minister of State with responsibility for overseas development aid, Conor Lenihan and officials will accompany the president.

Mrs McAleese, who departs for the first leg of her visit to Lesotho on June 10, has already made foreign trips in 2006 to the Middle East in February and the US last month.