Afghan YouTuber Najma Sadeqi is reportedly among those who died in a terror attack at Kabul airport last week.
According to CNN, Najma Sadeqi was killed when suicide bombers linked to the terrorist group ISIS-K detonated explosives outside the facility as thousands tried to flee the country. The news organization reports that two of Sadequi’s colleagues confirmed her passing.
An approximated 170 Afghans perished in the tragedy, as well as 13 U.S. service members.
Sadeqi is said to have recorded her final YouTube video days earlier, when the Afghan government collapsed amid a Taliban takeover. The 20-year-old told viewers that she wanted to issue a farewell because her ability to create content freely and safely no longer existed.
“Since we are not allowed to work and go out of our homes, we all had to record you a last video,” she began in the eight-minute clip, per CNN. “And through this video say goodbye to you all.”
Sadeqi was reportedly in her final year of journalism school and working for Afghan Insider’s YouTube channel, which featured firsthand accounts of young adults living and working in Afghanistan.
A community of YouTubers in Afghanistan were earning enough to support themselves and their families prior to the recent Taliban uprising, CNN reports. Sadequi noted in her video that she had also been funding her own education until the drastic political overthrow left her with little to no options.
“Life in Kabul has become very difficult, especially for those who used to be free and happy,” she said, per CNN. “I wish it is a bad dream, I wish we can wake up one day. But I know that it is not possible … and it is a reality that we are finished.”
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