Hodan Nalayeh spent the last days of her life doing what she loved most: sharing a side of Somalia rarely depicted in the West. On Twitter, she posted photos of young boys grinning on the island of Ilisi, fresh fish and lobsters pulled straight from the Indian Ocean and a colorful sunset from the port city of Kismayo.
“It was an incredible day to witness #Somalia’s beauty,” the Somali-Canadian journalist wrote.
Then, on Friday, al-Shabab militants stormed the Asasey Hotel in Kismayo, killing at least 26 people, including Nalayeh, 43, and her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman. An additional 56 people were wounded. It took around 14 hours for Somali security forces to regain control of the hotel, where several tribal elders and another journalist, Mohamed Sahal Omar, were also killed. At least one American was among the dead, the State Department confirmed.