The mystery of the two abducted Cuban Doctors

On April 12, 2019, two Cuban Doctors, Herera Correa and Landy Rodriguez were abducted by suspected Al-Shabab militia in Mandera.

However, the two doctors remain missing as clan elders and both governments try to secure their release.

Last week Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma declined to give any details, lest delicate negotiations and other operations being compromised. 

The two health workers on their way to work were bundled into two cars by the militants who drove towards the Somalia border at a high speed. Their bodyguard was killed and their driver taken into custody.

There has been no claim of responsibility or public ransom demand.

The Cuban doctors are said to have requested to be housed inside the Mandera Hospital compound, not kilometres away in a house from which they needed armed escorts twice a day.

A total of eight Cuban doctors now have been withdrawn from Wajir, Garissa, Lamu and Tana River counties, two from each.

The status of efforts by respected elders from Mandera, who were carefully selected, to broker a deal with their counterparts from Somalia is not known.

The number of the military choppers doing aerial reconnaissance and other ground searches around Somalia’s Bula Hawa have been dramatically scaled back.

Northeastern regional commissioner Mohamed Birik who had only been in Mandera town for a day before the kidnapping returned to Garissa on Thursday evening. He is yet to issue any statement.

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