MOGADISHU – The two Cuban doctors kidnapped by Al Shabaab in Mandera in April 2019 have been killed.
The militant group in a statement seen by DiploBrief on Saturday said Dr Assel Herrera and Dr Landy Rodriguez were killed in a US drone attack in Jilib, an al-Shabab stronghold about 385km southwest of Mogadishu, Somalia, on Thursday night.
“In the early hours of Thursday morning 5 Sha’ban 1445H, corresponding to 15 February 2024, American crusaders carried out multiple drone strikes in the city of Jilib, Islamic Wilaayah of Jubba, killing two Cuban prisoners. The aerial bombardment, which began at around 12:10am, targeted a house in Jilib, instantly killing Assel Herrera and Landy Rodriguez, who were captured on 12 April 2019 following an operation in the district of Mandera,” the terror group said.
“Thursday morning’s drone strikes against the Cuban prisoners once again sheds light on the recklessness and desperate nature of AFRICOM’s operations in Somalia, as well as the incompetence of the American crusaders and their faulty intelligence apparatus that has led to the murder of the two hostages. The American crusaders have been deliberately targeting the prisoners for several years and have conducted strikes in at least two locations prior to Thursday’s attack,” Al Shabaab claimed in the statement, attaching their alleged images.
Cuban Foreign Ministry on Saturday said it was aware “unofficial sources have reported the death in a bombing” of the two medics.
“So far, this information has not been confirmed. In this regard, the Cuban authorities remain in permanent communication with their Kenyan and Somali counterparts, and our people will be immediately informed,” it said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
President President Miguel Díaz-Canel expressed solidarity and affection to the families of doctors Assel and Landy, “in these moments of uncertainty and increased pain, in the face of the tragic news not yet confirmed, in whose clarification we are working hard with international authorities”.
“Assel and Landy represent the noble and generous spirit of a people who share even what they do not have, with the humble of the earth. Cuba does not lose hope of finding them alive. We will do so as long as there is no official confirmation that they have died,” he said.
One afternoon on April 12, 2019, Dr. Herrera, a general physician, and Dr. Rodriguez, a surgeon, were headed to work in the hot and dusty town of Mandera when gunmen ambushed their vehicle, killed their bodyguard and kidnapped them into unfamiliar lands in Somalia.
Since then, there have been efforts to rescue the medics no no avail.
In December 2019, Ines Maria Chapman, the vice president of the Cuban Council of Ministers, told reporters in Havana that the two doctors were well after returning from a trip to Kenya.
“The Kenyan authorities affirmed that both doctors, Assel Herrera and Landy Rodriguez, are well and they will continue their efforts, as well as those carried out by our country, for their safe return to Cuba,” she said.
“Our people can be sure that the Cuban government, like the government of Kenya, is making huge efforts, paying special attention to this issue,” Chapman added.
Kenya signed a health agreement with Cuba in 2017 that actualized an exchange programme where Cuban doctors would come into the country to help fill the gap in county hospitals while Kenyan doctors were sent to Cuba for specialized training.
The agreement saw the first batch of 53 family doctors and 47 specialists arrive in the country before an additional 20 specialists arrived in July 2020 to help in the fight against COVID-19.
