A journalist traveled to Ilhan Omar’s homeland of Somalia to challenge stereotypes and prove the country was “beautiful,” only to end up being killed by terrorists.

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.

Nalayeh returned to the country of her birth to tell “uplifting” stories about Somalia, according to News Wars.

“It was an incredible day to witness #Somalia’s beauty,” the Somali-Canadian journalist wrote.

Before President Trump’s tweetstorm in which he encouraged Omar to go back and fix her own country, Somali-Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh was trying to do precisely that.

One respondent praised her for “countering the doom narrative propagated by many about Somalia”.

Your are doing amazing work in countering the doom narrative propagated by many about Somalia, one tweet at a time — Ahmed kafia (@ahmedinajadosam) July 3, 2019

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. According to The Washington Post, 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.

Somali hotel attack kills at least 26 people Al-Shabab has claimed an attack on a hotel in the southern Somali port of Kismayo. Among at least 26 dead are prominent local officials and journalists. (Reuters)

In pictures from the scene (#AsAsey hotel) in Kismayo after Al-Shabaab storm. https://t.co/V91Doak1YN pic.twitter.com/35Dom95nu0 — Somalia Terror Updates (@SomaliTU) July 12, 2019

Nalayeh’s death came as a particular shock to the Somali diaspora, where the YouTube star was seen as a relentless optimist — someone who found a way to always see the best of humanity in a country where so many others seemed to only see the worst.

The journalist became well known for her relentlessly positive tweets about Somalia. Just one week ago, she lauded the “beauty” of the place.

Another Somali writer praised her portraying an image of the country radically different from the stereotype of “victims trapped in a vicious circle of conflicts”.

During a video tour on her YouTube channel of the town of Kismayo, Nalayeh said she was hopeful the area could be rebuilt and revived, “Because this place is beautiful!”

“While Nalayeh’s death would seem to underline the harshness of Trump’s remarks, it was also a visceral argument for what many understood to be his central point: that perhaps immigrants should be especially grateful to live in the United States,” reports the Pluralist.