Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has declined a proposal to meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Beijing, according to diplomatic sources.
Presidents of Djibouti and Mauritania and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union’s special envoy, have tried to mediate the meeting, but it was unsuccessful.
It marks President Mohamud’s second refusal to meet with Abiy Ahmed. In an earlier attempt, Kenyan President William Ruto sought to facilitate talks between the two leaders in Nairobi, which also failed.
The diplomatic tension between Somalia and Ethiopia stems from Ethiopia’s agreement to lease 20 kilometers of coastline from the breakaway Somaliland region in exchange for supporting its independence, a deal Mogadishu deems illegal.
Last month, Turkish-mediated talks to resolve the standoff ended without an agreement, as the Somali and Ethiopian foreign ministers avoided direct negotiations in Ankara. Somalia retaliated to the January agreement by expelling the Ethiopian ambassador and threatening to remove Ethiopian troops involved in anti-terrorist operations in Somalia.
