Nugal
Nugal's Garowe hosts Puntland's stable autonomous government since 1998, the administrative model that neither collapsed into chaos nor claimed independence.
Nugal contains Garowe, the capital of Puntland and the seat of governance for Somalia's most stable autonomous region. Since 1998, Puntland has maintained functional administration that neither descended into the chaos affecting southern Somalia nor claimed the independence that Somaliland asserts.
The region's relative stability enables economic activity that insecure areas cannot sustain—remittances from diaspora reaching families, livestock trade functioning, and commercial relationships developing. Garowe's role as administrative center creates service employment that pastoral economies alone cannot provide.
Puntland's recognition of federal sovereignty while maintaining practical autonomy represents one model for Somali reconstruction—the decentralized governance that might work where centralization failed. Whether this stability can extend southward—or whether Nugal remains an island of functionality surrounded by conflict—depends on dynamics beyond any single region's control.