Almaas Elman, a prominent rights activist, was shot dead in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Wednesday.

Almaas, who came from a leading family of peace campaigners, was travelling by car inside the heavily fortified airport compound when she was hit.

Security officials believe she may have been struck by a stray bullet.

“She was riding in a car along a road inside the airport,” said Mohamed Omar, a Somali security official. “A stray bullet hit her, and she died within a few minutes.”

Gunfire is a regular occurrence in Mogadishu, although current levels of violence are far lower than in past years of heavy conflict.

Almaas who had dual Somali and Canadian citizenship, is believed to have been attending a meeting for the Elman peace centre, founded in 1990 by her father, Elman Ali Ahmed.

Ahmed’s wife and daughters, including Almaas, fled to Canada as the civil war in Somalia worsened. He stayed in Somalia and in 1996 was killed in Mogadishu by unknown gunmen.

The rest of the family had returned to Somalia in recent years to help run the peace centre, which works to end the violence.

Horrific news and so incredibly sad to hear the murder of Almaas Elman in Mogadishu today. Somali women have done and continue to do SO MUCH both in the region & the diaspora and my heart goes out to @IlwadElman & the @ElmanPeaceHRC family. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un 🤲🏾 pic.twitter.com/J52GLg7373 — Hanna Ali (@HannaAli) November 20, 2019

Their work includes a programme called: “Drop the gun, pick up the pen”, which encourages child soldiers conscripted by militia gunmen to return to peace.

Almaas’s sister, youth activist Ilwad Elmam, was shortlisted to win the Nobel peace prize this year.

Tributes to Almaas have poured in on Twitter.

Hanna Ali, an author and director of the Somali Week festival in London, tweeted: “Horrific news and so incredibly sad to hear the murder of Almaas Elman in Mogadishu today. Somali women have done and continue to do SO MUCH, both in the region and the diaspora.”

Laetitia Bader, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch’s Africa division, tweeted: “Speechless. Just too devastating. Almaas was a wonderful, warm, committed and yet modest advocate. My deepest thoughts and condolences to Fartun [her mother], their relatives and Almaas’s many friends.”

Mohamed Dubo, a communication specialist in Mogadishu, who first met Elman in 2015, told the New York Times he was “shocked to the core” about her death. He said she was “a youthful soul that has changed many lives”.

The sprawling airport complex where she was killed includes embassies and the headquarters of African Union soldiers.

Although Somalia is slowly rebuilding after years of devastating conflict, it suffers regular bombing and assaults claimed by the jihadist insurgents, al-Shabaab.

Thee group was driven out of Mogadishu by government forces, backed by 20,000 African Union peacekeepers, in 2011.

Al-Shabaab continues to carry out attacks, however, including suicide bombings against government and international targets.