MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was heading to Ankara, Turkey, to attend the third round of talks aimed at defusing tensions with Ethiopia, the state news agency reported on Tuesday, in a row that threatens to destabilise the region.
If Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also attends the meeting, it will be the first time the two leaders have met since Addis Ababa announced plans to build a port in Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland, angering Mogadishu.
Ethiopian officials and Turkey’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Landlocked Ethiopia, which has thousands of troops in Somalia to fight al Qaeda-linked insurgents, said it would officially recognise Somaliland’s independence in exchange for a strategic strip of land, near where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean.
“President (Mohamud) has departed for Ankara at the official invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The third round of talks between Somalia and Ethiopia, mediated by Turkey, will resume,” Somali National News Agency (SONNA) wrote on X.
Somaliland has struggled to gain international recognition despite governing itself and enjoying comparative peace and stability since declaring independence in 1991. Mogadishu is firmly opposed to Somaliland’s independence bid.
The spat has drawn Somalia closer to Egypt, which has quarrelled with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of a vast hydro dam on the Nile River, and Eritrea, another of Ethiopia’s foes.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland, Abdi Sheikh, Dawit Endeshaw and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Hereward Holland, Alexandra Hudson)
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