Hodan Naleyeh.

Somali-Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh and her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman, died in a suicide bomb and gun attack claimed by Al-Shabaab militants on a hotel in southern Somalia.

"I'm absolutely devastated by the news of the death of our dear sister Hodan Nalayeh and her husband in a terrorist attack in Somalia today. What a loss to us. Her beautiful spirit shined through her work and the way she treated people," Omar Suleiman, a Texas-based imam who knew the victim, wrote on social media.

Nalayeh was born in Somalia in 1976, but spent most of her life in Canada, first in Alberta and then in Toronto. She founded Integration TV, an international web-based video production company aimed at Somali viewers around the world. She was the first Somali woman media owner in the world.

Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen mourned Hodan Nalayeh's death on Twitter, saying she "highlighted the community's positive stories and contributions in Canada" through her work as a journalist. "We mourn her loss deeply, and all others killed in the #KismayoAttack," he wrote.

Nalayeh's endless "positivity" and "love for people" was inspiring, said Canada's New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath on Twitter.

"In Ontario, Hodan launched @IntegrationTV to tell the beautiful stories of the Somali Diaspora, and took that same humanity and love to her reporting and storytelling in Somalia. My thoughts are with her family, and the victims of the #Kismayo attack during this horrific time."

Agencies