Somalia’s President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has declined a proposal to meet Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC) held in Beijing, according to diplomatic sources.

Efforts were made by the Presidents of Djibouti and Mauritania, along with former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is the African Union’s Special Envoy, to mediate the meeting between the two leaders, but they were unsuccessful.

This marks the second time President Mohamud has refused to meet with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The first attempt was made by Kenyan President William Ruto, who tried to facilitate talks between the two leaders in Nairobi, but that effort also failed.

The diplomatic tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia stem from a controversial agreement in which Ethiopia leased a 20 km coastal area in the self-declared Somaliland region to support Somaliland’s independence. The Somali government in Mogadishu has deemed this agreement illegal.

Last month, Turkish-mediated talks aimed at resolving the dispute ended without any agreement, as both Somali and Ethiopian foreign ministers failed to hold direct discussions in Ankara. In response to the January agreement, Somalia expelled Ethiopia’s ambassador and threatened to withdraw Ethiopian troops involved in anti-terrorism operations in the country.