Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdezi and his Kenya counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta ob Friday discussed the situation of the kidnapped Cuban doctors.
This was also the day Kenya extended the deal with 100 (now 98) imported doctors by two years.
“I had a fruitful conversation with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. We discussed bilateral relations, combating COVID-19 and the current status of efforts to safely bring home doctors Assel and Landy,” President Bermúdezi said on Friday.
Assel Herera Correa, a general physician, and Landy Rodriguez, a surgeon, were kidnapped in Mandera on April 12, 2019.
In December 2019, Ines Maria Chapman, the vice president of the Cuban Council of Ministers, told reporters in Havana on that the twho 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,” he 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.
Six months later, however, not much has been heard about their safety, status or whereabouts.
Kenya’s government spokesperson Cyrus Oguna is on record saying the two medics are in Somalia, “alive, that’s for sure,” and “in good health.”
“We are developing plans to ensure that they are carried out in such a way that their lives are not put at risk, that we can go there, pull them out and return them to their families,” Oguna said last year.
“We are constantly checking clues and intelligence information and as soon as we can execute the operational plan, we will announce it.”
In May last year, a senior government official said the kidnappers had demanded $1.5 billion for their release.
Other doctors in border areas were transferred to Nairobi.
