Why Axadle named Puntland State’s president Person of the Year: Wartime leadership against ISIS
Sometimes leadership becomes legible only when the stakes are existential. Axadle’s decision to name Puntland State State of Somalia President Said Abdullahi Deni “Person of the Year” rests on such a moment: a months-long military campaign against the Islamic State’s Somali branch that tested Puntland State’s security institutions, its economic lifelines and public confidence in government.
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The outlet’s choice is not about party politics or personality. It is anchored in a single, consequential judgment call—moving from incremental operations to a coordinated offensive when ISIS sought to entrench itself in the Al-Miskad/Calmiskaad mountain range of Bari region and threaten strategic urban centers, including Bosaso, Puntland State’s commercial heart.
The threat: an entrenched insurgency in a strategic corridor
ISIS had used the rugged terrain of the Al-Miskad mountains as cover to regroup, raise funds and harass communities and trade. From there, the group aimed to project power into coastal and inland corridors, with Bosaso a clear prize. The stakes were never local alone: Bari’s routes feed commerce through the Gulf of Aden and into the Red Sea, making any durable ISIS foothold a challenge with regional ramifications.
Preparation before contact: mobilization and public readiness
According to Axadle’s account, the pivot to an expanded campaign did not happen on impulse. It followed a period of force mobilization, risk assessments and public messaging intended to harden communities against the intimidation and disruption that typically follow insurgent setbacks. The logic was straightforward: piecemeal counterterrorism would leave the militants space to adapt; a synchronized operation could compress time and deny escape or replenishment.
ISIS tried to interrupt that trajectory. A suicide attack in the Dharjaale area—meant to sap momentum and sow fear—became the hinge between two phases. Instead of slowing the operation, it accelerated it, hardening the political mandate to take the fight directly into the mountains.
Al-Miskad/Calmiskaad: tipping the balance
In the ensuing offensive, Puntland State forces moved to capture major ISIS bases across the Calmiskaad range. The gains reduced pressure on civilians, traders and local governance in Bari. For Puntland State’s security services, they also marked a shift from reactive posture to initiative: denying the militants their rear bases and dispersing the networks that tax communities and threaten city perimeters.
That shift carries practical meaning. It widens the space for commerce in and around Bosaso. It helps local authorities extend services into areas where government presence had thinned. And it communicates a key message to the public: that the state can act as guarantor when a threat rises to existential scale.
An international dimension: coordination with key partners
The campaign did not unfold in isolation. As operations advanced and territory was cleared, the conflict’s implications for maritime trade and regional stability drew attention from the United States and the United Arab Emirates. Axadle reports that both partners provided strategic support—intelligence, technical assistance, training and security coordination—designed to make the gains more than temporary.
That backing arrived during a decisive phase, bolstering operational confidence and sharpening command-and-control. It also reframed the fight in Puntland State as part of a wider counterterrorism task along the Horn of Africa’s maritime rim, where the integrity of coastal trade routes intersects with inland stability. To that end, Puntland State found itself not only securing local communities, but also relieving pressure on a corridor central to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Why the designation matters
Axadle’s rationale is both narrow and weighty: in a moment of danger, Deni chose a comprehensive course and stewarded it toward tangible results. In editorial terms, Person of the Year is a recognition of the decision and its consequences, not a certification of perfection or a closing of debate. The offensive was not “just another operation.” It was a test of whether Puntland State could defend its foundational security consensus and whether public trust in authority could be reinforced when a genuine threat appeared.
That those tests were answered in the affirmative accounts for the outlet’s selection. It is also a reminder of how leadership is measured in volatile contexts—not only by what is promised, but by what is organized and executed under pressure.
The next test: translating security gains into governance
Recognition, however, is a starting line, not a finish. The core question after an insurgent rollback is always the same: Can the state turn battlefield momentum into institutions that are more representative, more transparent and more capable?
Puntland State still faces complex tasks that will determine whether the security dividend endures:
- Completing the electoral system.
- Ensuring transparency and accountability across public institutions.
- Rebuilding administration and services in areas liberated from ISIS control.
- Converting security gains into broad-based economic and social development.
Each item is interlocking. Completing electoral processes can refresh mandates and reduce the political space that violent actors exploit. Transparency can help stabilize revenue and spending, a prerequisite for service delivery in newly secured districts. Rebuilding local administration is how communities experience the state beyond the security sector. And economic expansion—especially in hubs like Bosaso—can make it harder for any group to tax, recruit or coerce.
A prudent path forward
The operational logic that succeeded in Al-Miskad/Calmiskaad offers a blueprint for the civilian phase: plan deliberately, coordinate across institutions, build public consent and move at a speed that outpaces spoilers. Strategic partnerships should evolve accordingly—from kinetic support to technical assistance in revenue management, civil service training, justice delivery and infrastructure that locks in market confidence.
Measured against that horizon, Person of the Year is less a laurel than a ledger. It acknowledges that at an inflection point, Puntland State’s leadership opted for action and cleared ground for governance to catch up. The measure in the year ahead will be how that ground is used—whether it becomes a platform for a more durable constitutional order and a more inclusive economy, or whether it erodes under the familiar pressures that follow every hard-won gain.
Axadle’s choice puts that expectation in the open. If leadership is judged by action, the standard does not fade with battlefield successes. It intensifies—and shifts to the painstaking work of institutionalizing peace.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
