On May 31 of the previous year, the U.S. Africa Command announced an airstrike targeting senior leaders of ISIS in Somalia, including the group's leader in the region, Abdel Qadir Mo'men. The strike occurred in a remote area, 50 miles southeast of Bosaso, where ISIS's limited presence in Somalia is concentrated.
Although U.S. Africa Command was unable to confirm the fate of Abdel Qadir Mo'men and whether he was one of the three individuals killed in the strike, the surprise came from statements made by U.S. officials. Two weeks later, they confirmed to NBC News that "the airstrike in northeastern Somalia targeted the new global leader of ISIS."
Who is Abdel Qadir Mo'men?
In recent years, Abdel Qadir Mo'men rose to prominence within ISIS, gaining significant influence and wide-ranging powers. So, who is this septuagenarian with a red beard and dark complexion?
Abdel Qadir Mo'men (likely born in 1953) hails from the town of Qandala in the Puntland region of northern Somalia. He spent a large part of his life in Europe, moving between Sweden, where he lived for more than ten years, and London and Leicester, where he became a charismatic preacher in the mosques of these cities. His fiery speeches, which glorified violence and incited bloodshed, attracted a number of extremists, some of whom would leave a significant mark on ISIS's bloody record, such as Mohammed Jassim Emwazi, or "Jihadi John," ISIS's infamous executioner.
In 2010, Mo'men fled to Somalia after British authorities began investigating him for his inciting sermons. Upon arrival, he burned his British passport in front of a crowd of supporters at a mosque and joined the al-Shabaab militant group, which was at its peak of expansion at the time, controlling most of Mogadishu. Mo'men settled in the northeastern region of Somalia and was tasked by Mukhtar Abu Zubair with leading al-Shabaab cells there, benefiting from his clan relations and broad influence in his hometown.
Around a year and a half after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of the "Islamic Caliphate" and called on all armed groups worldwide to pledge allegiance to him, in October 2015, Abdel Qadir Mo'men declared his allegiance to ISIS. His presence with his followers was limited to the remote mountainous areas in the far north of Puntland, which allowed him to avoid the purges carried out by al-Shabaab against ISIS loyalists in central and southern Somalia.
On August 11, 2016, the United States classified Abdel Qadir Mo'men as a special terrorist, and on April 17, 2018, his group was designated as an ISIS affiliate.
His Roles in ISIS
Gradually, Abdel Qadir Mo'men's stature within ISIS rose, and he was assigned vital roles, despite the Somali branch being considered one of the weakest in terms of capabilities and the least able to carry out lethal attacks at present.
There was a misconception that Mo'men was the "governor" of ISIS in Somalia, but in reality, his roles and powers were far broader than those of a provincial governor. He routinely issued instructions and orders to the ISIS governor in Somalia, according to internal ISIS documents and correspondence.
Mo'men heads the "Al-Karrar Office," which oversees ISIS activities in the Horn of Africa, Central Africa, and Mozambique. Recently, his authority expanded to include Yemen, and possibly the ISIS branch in West Africa and the Sahel following the uncertainty surrounding the fate of Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leader of ISIS in Nigeria, and the Amir of the Anfal and Furqan offices after their merger.
In addition to his authority over ISIS leaders in Africa and Yemen, Abdel Qadir Mo'men plays a key role in the terrorist economy that replaced ISIS’s dwindling budget after its defeat in Iraq and Syria, alongside the cessation of revenue from oil, antiquities, and other sources.
Through extortion of traders, businessmen, and companies, involvement in smuggling activities, tax collection, and looting operations carried out by his men in Somalia, Mo'men was able to secure massive financial resources, which he channeled to the higher leadership of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. He initiated a complex network of money exchange shops, digital wallets, and other means of money transfer to funnel his budget surplus to other ISIS provinces.
According to a February 2023 report from the UN's Global Jihadist Threat Monitoring and Tracking Team, Mo'men’s office, Al-Karrar, has been sending financial payments to several ISIS provinces worldwide, including the Khorasan province, where "about $25,000 in cryptocurrency is sent monthly" and Al-Karrar "collects approximately $100,000 a month through extortion of the shipping industry and illegal taxes."
Abdel Qadir Mo'men’s Interference in Other Provinces
Mo'men intervenes in the affairs of other provinces either as an administrative overseer, responsible for coordinating between ISIS’s leadership in Iraq and Syria and its provinces in Africa and Yemen, or as a religious authority (mufti) on legal issues affecting these provinces. He forbade ISIS members in Yemen from communicating with sheikhs who did not pledge allegiance to ISIS and instructed the "governor of Yemen" to provide him with a detailed report on any interactions between his men and non-ISIS affiliated sheikhs.
The New Caliph
Could Abdel Qadir Mo'men’s qualifications and roles elevate him to the level of becoming the "Caliph" and leader of ISIS?
The deaths of four ISIS leaders and the circumstances surrounding their deaths make it hard to rule out the idea of the current ISIS leader's identity and location, no matter how far-fetched this might seem.
Who could have predicted that al-Baghdadi was hiding in Idlib, the stronghold of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and in the very heart of the "apostate's house" where he forbade his followers from residing? Or that Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi, the new leader, was living in southern Syria, in a village controlled by a mix of pro- and anti-Assad militias, where even those who killed him didn't know they were taking down the head of ISIS.
The U.S. administration is convinced that Abdel Qadir Mo'men is the new global leader of ISIS. A senior Pentagon official stated to NBC News, "ISIS leadership saw Africa as the area they needed to invest in and where they could operate more freely, and they want to expand the group's cells there, so they brought the caliph to that region."
On the other hand, a channel run by ISIS defectors confirmed that Mo'men is the current leader of ISIS, citing "pious brothers from Somalia" who confirmed that "Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi is Abdel Qadir Mo'men and that he took over the caliphate after the death of Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini."
If we revisit the circumstances surrounding ISIS’s acknowledgment of the death of its fourth leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini, and the appointment of Abu Hafs al-Hashimi as his successor, we find that the group took more than three months to announce its new leader. It was clear that the organization was facing a leadership transition crisis. Was this delay due to difficult deliberations that led to the appointment of Abdel Qadir Mo'men? Or perhaps there were hesitations within the organization about this appointment, and it took time to convince them of its validity?
There is no doubt that there is an "unofficial veto" that no one outside of Iraq should lead the organization, as expressed by Haji Hamid’s famous statement "By God, we will not give it up." However, the fact that all Iraqi leadership has perished in recent years has left the organization with no other option but to search for alternatives in other countries or risk appointing obscure Iraqi figures whose past, connections, and intentions remain unknown.
Another point to note is that "Sham Province" is now outside the considerations of the group's leaders. The description of "the compromised province" is now associated with it, following the assassination and arrest of most of its leaders, including the four "caliphs." The group no longer entrusts sensitive tasks to the Sham branch, as evidenced by the assassination of Abu Mariah al-Qahhtani carried out by an Iraqi cell.
As for the Qurashi lineage that the group requires for its leader, Abdel Qadir Mo'men belongs to the Majerteen clan, which traces its lineage to Aqeel ibn Abi Talib, making him a Hashemite and Qurashi by descent.
Thus, all possibilities remain open. ISIS had previously appointed Abdullah Qardash, who had only one leg, despite his physical ineligibility, a condition required for the position of "Caliph." If the Sham province is compromised, the Iraqi province is unsafe, the Yemeni province is in decline, and the Khorasan province is rebellious, then ISIS will have no choice but to focus on the African provinces, and in Africa, no one rivals Abdel Qadir Mo'men in influence and impact.