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.
Nalayeh returned to the country of her birth to tell “uplifting” stories about Somalia, according to the Washington Post.
The journalist became well known for her relentlessly positive tweets about Somalia. Just one week ago, she lauded the “beauty” of the place.
— Hodan Nalayeh (@HodanTV) July 11, 2019
— Hodan Nalayeh (@HodanTV) July 2, 2019
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!”
On Friday last week, Nalayeh was killed in that very same town when al-Shabab militants stormed the Asasey Hotel in Kismayo.
— Somalia Terror Updates (@SomaliTU) July 12, 2019
“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.
