The Cuban government said Saturday that “the efforts to clarify the situation” of the two kidnapped doctors six years ago in Kenya and then transferred to Somalia by alleged members of the Somali jihadist group to Shabab.
The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, recalled in his social networks that “6 years ago, Cuban doctors Assel and Landy were kidnapped in Kenya, while they fulfilled an internationalist mission.”
6 years ago, Cuban doctors Assel and Landy were kidnapped in Kenya while they met an internationalist mission.
Efforts continue to clarify their situation, with the permanent attention and commitment of the highest level of the party and the government of #Cuba. pic.twitter.com/osd7Jectpz
– Bruno Rodríguez P (@brunorguezp) April 12, 2025
“The efforts to clarify their situation continue, with the permanent attention and commitment of the highest level of the party and the government of Cuba,” said the chancellor without offering more clues about the case.
The surgeon Landy Rodríguez and the specialist in General Medicine Assel Herrera were kidnapped in the Kenyan city of Mandera (Northeast) on April 12, 2019, bordering with somalia and objective of jihadist attacks in the past.
Apart from diplomatic contacts, often limited to hopeful statements that avoid detailing the efforts to free Herrera and Rodríguez, nor is the fate of the doctors known nor have life evidence has been published.
In May 2019, traditional leaders of Kenya and Somalia who traveled to the Somalí Region of Jubaland, controlled by Al Shabab, to negotiate in favor of the doctors, confessed to having seen the doctors paying medical assistance to the local population.
However, last year the United States said he was evaluating whether an American air attack against Shabab had killed these doctors, as the terrorist organization said.
A spokeswoman for the United States military command in Africa (Africom) then confirmed to Efe that “an air attack was held against the Shabab network on February 15 near (the town of) Jilib, Somalia”, where the doctors supposedly died.
To date, the alleged death has not been confirmed in that attack of both doctors, nor has more clues been offered about his whereabouts.
Herrera and Rodríguez are part of a contingent of a hundred Cuban professionals who arrived in 2018 in application of a bilateral agreement to improve access to specialized health services in the African country.
Al Shabab, affiliated since 2012 to the terrorist network Al Qaeda, perpetrates frequent attacks to overthrow the Somali government – reslected by the international community – and establish an Islamic state of wahabí cutting (ultraconservative).
