On April 12, 2019, two Cuban doctors destined to work in Mandera County hit the headlines when suspected Al-Shabab Militia abducted them on their way to work.
Their whereabout has remained unknown since then, as community elders from Mandera went deep in the interior of Somalia to hold negotiations with the abductors.
Suspected Al Shabaab militants who abducted two Cuban doctors in Mandera are now demanding Ksh.150 million in ransom.
The community elders went to a remote place between the towns of Buale and El-Ade in Jubaland region of Somalia, where general practitioner Herera Corea and surgeon Landy Rodriguez are said to have been seen alive.
After days of negotiations, community elders from Mandera and Bulahawo in Somalia confirmed that the two are alive and offering treatment to the community in a restricted environment, but the abductors are now demanding a ransom of Ksh 150 million to release them.
Sources privy to the North-Eastern provincial administration command, however, says authorities have sent back the elders seeking to further negotiate the ransom.
Intelligence sources however intimate that the duo might have been abducted by bandits who handed them over to suspected Al Shabaab militants who subsequently sought the ransom from the group of elders allegedly through proxies.