'No Words Can Describe': Ilhan Omar's Father, Nur Omar Mohamed, Dies of Coronavirus Complications

Rep. Ilhan Omar announced late Monday that her father had died of complications from the coronavirus.

"It is with tremendous sadness and pain that I share that my father, Nur Omar Mohamed, passed away due to complications from COVID-19," the Minnesota Democrat said. "No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew him."

Many congressional colleagues, including Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), shared their condolences online:

Omar came to the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia in 1995 with her father, who raised her with her grandfather after Omar's mother died. 

In 2019, Omar shared a photo on social media of her father arriving in Washington, D.C. to attend her swearing-in ceremony when she became the first Somali-American to be elected to the U.S. Congress. 

Omar's daughter, 17-year-old climate action leader Isra Hirsi, also shared a photo of her grandfather on Twitter on Tuesday.

More than 116,000 Americans have now died of the coronavirus, including more than 1,300 in Omar's home state of Minnesota. 

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have also lost siblings to the coronavirus pandemic over the past two months.