Somali president, Ethiopian prime minister set talks over Somaliland

WASHINGTON -  Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed are set to meet in person in Ankara, Turkey, Somali officials said Tuesday.

Sources close to the Somali presidency confirmed the talks, telling VOA, "Ethiopia requested the meeting, and the Somali president accepted."

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the meeting is scheduled to take place Wednesday. They added that Somalia’s president arrived in Turkey at the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

There was no immediate confirmation of the meeting from Ethiopian officials.

If the meeting occurs, it will be the first between the two leaders since Ethiopia and Somalia became embroiled in a dispute over a maritime agreement that Ethiopia signed with the breakaway republic of Somaliland on January 1.

The agreement grants Ethiopia access to a 20-kilometer stretch of Red Sea coastline near the Gulf of Aden in return for potential recognition of Somaliland’s independence.

The Somali government has called the agreement illegal and a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Mogadishu sees Somaliland as a part of Somalia.

Ethiopia maintains that it does not infringe on Somalia’s sovereignty.

Somaliland is a self-governing territory that declared independence in 1991 but has yet to win international recognition.

Somalia is expecting all Ethiopian troops to leave the country by the end of this month as the mandate of an African Union Transition Mission in Somalia expires.

Previous attempts

In July and August, two rounds of talks between Ethiopia and Somalia, mediated by Turkey, failed to solve the dispute over Somaliland, with Somalia demanding Ethiopia withdraw from the deal. The issue has raised fears of fresh conflict in the Horn of Africa region.

In September, Mohamud rejected an offer to meet with Abiy while they were attending a forum on China-Africa cooperation in Beijing, according to diplomatic sources.

They say the Somali president made the meeting conditional on Ethiopia first withdrawing from the agreement it signed with Somaliland.

The presidents of Djibouti and Mauritania, along with former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the special envoy to the African Union, tried to arrange a meeting, but were unsuccessful.

Additionally, an attempt by the Kenyan government to bring the two leaders together failed.

Kenyan President William Ruto recently said that he and the president of Uganda,

Yoweri Museveni, were willing to mediate between Somalia and Ethiopia.