Najma Sadeqi / YouTube
- 20-year-old YouTuber Najma Sadeqi was killed in a terror attack in Kabul on August 27.
- At least 169 Afghans and 13 US service members died in the suicide bombing.
- In Sadeqi's final video, she said "goodbye" and asked her viewers to pray for her.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
20-year-old YouTuber and journalism student Najma Sadeqi died during a suicide bombing attack outside Kabul's international airport on Thursday, according to reporting from CNN.
At least 169 Afghans and 13 US service members also died in the bombing, and 200 more were wounded. The Biden administration attributed the fatal explosion to the Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate, ISIS-K. The organization claimed responsibility for the attacks on Thursday evening.
Sadeqi had recently begun working as a reporter with YouTube news channel Afghan Insider (no affiliation with Insider), which has about 25 million views on its videos following young people living in Afghanistan.
CNN spoke to two of Sadeqi's colleagues, Rohina Afshar and Khawja Samiullah Sediqi, who confirmed her death. They also said they feared for young people following their career path in the country. Afshar said she doesn't have a job anymore and is too scared to leave her house in case she is recognized.
"I don't know how can we survive this situation," she said.
The videos on Sadeqi's channel are no longer available to view, but CNN reported she recorded a video four days after the Taliban took over control of Afghanistan where she said "goodbye."
"Since we are not allowed to work and go out of our homes, we all had to record you a last video," she said. "And through this video say goodbye to you all."
Sadeqi said life in Kabul had become very difficult, and she was scared to walk outside on the street. She asked her followers to pray for her.
"I wish it is a bad dream, I wish we can wake up one day," she said. "But I know that it is not possible [...] And it is a reality that we are finished."
Her colleague Sediqi told CNN dozens of young talented Afghan people had started working for YouTube channels in recent years "not only to make a living but to find a platform to prove themselves and the progress Afghans had made in the last two decades."
"But in the last couple of weeks, everything changed," he said. "We stopped producing new stuff, we are scared of being targeted, intimidated, or harmed."
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.