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Cuba awaits confirmation of fate of 2 doctors kidnapped in Kenya

In this file photo taken on November 9, 2018, Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez speaks during a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Government Office in Hanoi. (Photo: Luong Thai Linh/ AFP)

By Bashir Mohammed | Monday, February 19, 2024

Cuban authorities say they are in contact with officials from Kenya and Somalia to verify information suggesting the doctors were killed in a US bombing on February 15, 2024.

The fate of doctors Landy Rodriguez and Assel Herrera, abducted in Kenya in 2019 by the Al-Shabaab terror group, is awaiting confirmation.

In a statement on Saturday, Cuban authorities said they were in contact with officials from Kenya and Somalia to verify information from unofficial sources suggesting that the doctors met their demise in a US bombing on February 15, 2024.

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Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel expressed solidarity with the doctors' families and commended them on their strength.

"Cuba does not lose hope of finding them alive. We will do so as long as there is no official confirmation they are dead," he wrote on X.

The President noted that Rodriguez and Herrera exemplified the noble and generous spirit of the Cuban people - sharing with others even when they had little.

During a press conference, Cuba's Public Health Minister, José Ángel Portal, assured that the ministry had directly contacted the families upon learning of the doctors' presumed deaths.

“When we have more information about the unfortunate incident, the families and the Cuban people will be informed immediately," he said.

The Cuban government has actively worked for the return of the kidnapped doctors since their abduction in Mander County.

In April 2021, President Díaz-Canel discussed strategies for their return with Kenya's then-President Uhuru Kenyatta.