He doctors kidnapping Cubans Landy Rodríguez Hernández and Assel Herrera Correa, in Kenya, and their subsequent transfer to Somalia by alleged members of the Somali jihadist group Al Shabab turns four today without any public clue about their fate.
Rodríguez Hernández, a surgeon, and Herrera Correa, a general medicine specialist, were kidnapped in the Kenyan city of Mandera, on the border with Somalia and the target of jihadist attacks in the past, recalls a report from efe.
We persevere in our battle for the safe return to the Homeland of doctors Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodríguez Hernández. Four years after their kidnapping, we continue to take courageous steps without giving up in the effort to have them among us, together with their families and their people.
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) April 12, 2023
That April 12, the two doctors were traveling, as was their custom, in a convoy to the Mandera hospital protected by armed escorts, when they were intercepted after a shootout in which one of the policemen who were watching over their safety died.
Until last year, the Kenyan government claimed that efforts were being made to rescue the doctors, efforts that, to date, have been unsuccessful.
Official reactions from Kenya and Somalia
Since Kenyan President William Ruto came to power last September, the Executive has not made a public statement on the case, the Spanish agency points out. Official silence has also prevailed in neighboring Somalia, where the two doctors are supposed to be still captive.
“Nobody knows the current whereabouts of the two Cuban doctors. We also do not have updated information on the current state of his well-being, ”he assured efe A source with the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) on condition of anonymity is not authorized to speak to the media.
“It is believed that they are still being held somewhere in an Al Shabab stronghold since their kidnapping,” said the source, who stressed: “We have no further details at this time and nothing new has emerged in the last two years.”
In his opinion, Kenya must also be held accountable, since the kidnappings took place on its soil and al-Shabab fighters are known to cross the border areas between Somalia and Kenya. “It’s an unsolved case, but that doesn’t mean people should give up hope,” the source concluded.
without losing hope
Among those who do not lose that hope is the cuban ambassador in Kenya, Juan Manuel Rodríguez Vázquez.
Cuba and Kenya agree to strengthen bilateral cooperation, after the coming to power of William Ruto
“Of course, we keep in mind the date of the four-year anniversary (of the kidnapping). We work every day to guarantee the return of them (the doctors),” Rodríguez Vázquez told this source, who presented credentials on the 4th in Mogadishu to the Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, as non-resident ambassador to That country.
“All issues of bilateral relations were discussed with the Somali president,” he revealed to the diplomat, although he did not specify whether he discussed the abduction of the doctors with Mohamud. The day before, Rodríguez Vázquez was received by the Somali Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abshir Omar Jama.
“Having established diplomatic relations between 1972-1977, we welcome the resumption of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cuba governed by cooperation and mutual respect,” Jama said. However, the ambassador clarified to efe that “there was a break in relations, but they were reestablished in 1989.”
Today marks the 4th anniversary of the kidnapping of Cuban doctors Landy Rodríguez Hernández and Assel Herrera Correa. We continue to take steps without interruption to achieve their safe return to #Cuba. pic.twitter.com/gPDjWPpDM7
— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) April 12, 2023
In any case, this diplomatic approach “has the potential to change the course (of the case) if the Cuban government pressures the Somali government to find out what happened to these two doctors,” added the NISA source consulted by efe.
For his part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez, remembered this day to the doctors with a message from Twitter, and stressed that “continuous efforts are being made to achieve their safe return to Cuba.” The same was ratified shortly after by President Díaz-Canel.
Apart from diplomatic contacts, often limited to hopeful statements that avoid detailing the efforts to free Herrera and Rodríguez, the fate of the doctors is not known with certainty, nor has any evidence of its reality been published.
Last News
In May 2019, traditional leaders from Kenya and Somalia who traveled to Somali’s al-Shabab-controlled region of Jubaland to negotiate on behalf of the doctors, confessed to seeing the doctors providing medical care to the local population.
According to the mediators, the kidnappers came to demand 1.5 million dollars as a condition for their release, the Kenyan press reported at the time.
Herrera and Rodríguez are part of a contingent of a hundred cuban professionals who arrived in Kenya in 2018 in application of a bilateral agreement to improve access to specialized health services in the African country.
Somalia
Al Shabab, affiliated with the terrorist network Al Qaeda since 2012, perpetrates frequent attacks to overthrow the Somali government -backed by the international community- and establish an Islamic state of Wahhabi (ultra-conservative) cut.
Foreign ministers of Cuba and Somalia discussed kidnapped Cuban doctors
The jihadist group controls rural areas of central and southern Somalia and operates in neighboring countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia.
Somalia has lived in a state of war and chaos since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown, leaving the country without an effective government and at the mercy of Islamist militias and warlords.
Efe/OnCuba.
