Erdogan meets Somalia, Ethiopia leaders separately amid Somaliland dispute

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan held separate meetings with the leaders of Somalia and Ethiopia on Wednesday as part of his efforts to resolve a dispute between the two Horn of Africa neighbours at odds over the breakaway Somaliland region.

In two posts on X, the Turkish Presidency said Erdogan held bilateral meetings with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Ankara. There were no other details about the contents of the meetings.

Abiy held a bilateral meeting with Erdogan and their respective delegations, Ethiopia's Office of the Prime Minister confirmed.

Somalia's national broadcaster SNTV reported Sheikh Mohamud and Erdogan held discussions on strengthening bilateral relations and paving the way for a third round of talks between Somalia and Ethiopia, mediated by Turkey, during their bilateral meeting.

Turkey has so far hosted two rounds of meetings between the East African neighbours in an attempt to repair their relations. A third round of talks that had initially been set to take place in September were cancelled, underlining the tensions between the two countries.

Somalia and Ethiopia fell out earlier this year after the Ethiopians announced plans to build a port in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland, which has struggled to gain international recognition despite governing itself and enjoying comparative peace and stability since declaring independence in 1991.

Somalia is firmly opposed to Somaliland's independence bid.

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.

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 to Eritrea, another of Ethiopia's foes.

Turkey has close ties with both Ethiopia and Somalia, training Somalia's security forces and supplying development assistance in return for a foothold on a key global shipping route.

(Reporting by Hereward Holland, Ezgi Erkoyun, Abdi Sheikh, Dawit Endeshaw and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Keith Weir)