NAIROBI (Halbeeg News) – Kenyan and Cuban government have restarted their efforts to rescue two Cuban doctors abducted from a town near Kenya-Somalia border
In April 12, 2019, armed men suspected to be al-Shabaab had kidnapped Cuban surgeon Landy Rodríguez and general medicine specialist Assel Herrera from Mandera town barely eight months after they were deployed there
More than a year in captivity, both Kenya and Cuba had no clue about the whereabouts of the the doctors.
Health minister from from Kenya and Cuba had had talks this week over the means to rescue the two doctors.
Speaking to the media after the visual meeting, Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda said Kenya expressed its commitment to rescue the missing medics.
“I had a telephone conversation today with the Kenyan Minister of Health Mr. Mutahi Kagwe, who informed us that his Government continues to make efforts to guarantee the safe return to Cuba of our two kidnapped doctors, for which they are working hard.”
The Cuban doctors were on their way to work at the Mandera city hospital, accompanied by armed escorts, when the hijackers attacked the vehicle they were traveling in, and they were caught in a shooting in which one of their guards died.
Since the doctors were abducted, Cuba’s high Government officials have reported several talks with their counterparts in Kenya and Somalia, the country to which the abducted doctors were taken, and have stated that they are working for the safe return of the specialists to the island.
Rodríguez and Herrera are part of a contingent of one hundred Cuban health professionals who arrived in Kenya in 2018 in the application of a bilateral agreement to improve access to specialized health services in that African country.
In June, Cuba and Kenya renewed and extended, until the end of 2020, an agreement to have the services of Cuban doctors.
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