Barack Obama, the president of the United States, has taken a public oath of office to begin his second term in office, a day after officially affirming the duties of president in a private White House ceremony.

Hundreds of thousands gathered at the National Mall in Washington DC on Monday to witness the president take an oath to “protect and defend” the US constitution. In his second inaugural address, Obama declared that a decade of US wars was ending and that the country’s economy was on the road to recovery.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane reports from Washington DC.