President George W. Bush arrives in Africa on Saturday to showcase a US foreign policy that has been described even by some of his political opponents as the “greatest legacy any president could leave”: his administration’s $15bn (€10.2bn, £7.6) investment to fight Aids on the continent.

His six-day trip to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia is designed to highlight the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, which is credited with providing drug treatment that has saved nearly 1.5m lives in 15 countries. Still more people have been helped by its prevention, diagnosis and support programmes for those affected by HIV.