Foreign Minister recalls Cuban doctors kidnapped in Kenya

 HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 13 (ACN) In a post on X, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla recalled that Cuba was marking six years since the Cuban doctors Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodríguez Hernández were abducted in Kenya while fulfilling an internationalist mission and stressed that the island keeps striving to establish their status through the permanent engagement of the top leaders of the Communist Party and the Government of Cuba.

The doctors were kidnapped on April 12, 2019 as the car taking them to the hospital in the border town of Mandera was attacked by alleged members of Al Shabab.

On February 17, 2024, unofficial sources reported that they had been killed two days earlier during an airstrike by U.S. military forces operating in Somalia.

In response to the news, Esteban Lazo, president of the National Assembly of People's Power of Cuba, visited Kenya as High Level Special Envoy of the President of the Republic to meet with President William Ruto.

According to a note issued by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) in February 2024, Mr. Lazo received sensitive information deemed useful to keep looking into the possible death of the doctors while negotiations continue with several governments and international with a view to getting cooperation and further clarification.

However, on April 12, 2024, MINREX announced that it had been impossible to find definitive information or evidence about the whereabouts of doctors despite all efforts deployed by the Cuban Government.

“What remains clear so far is that on the night of February 15, 2024, the U.S. Africa Command based in Somalia attacked the area where the Cuban doctors were suspected to be held”, MINREX remarked exactly one year ago.