This archive report was first published on 12 July 2019.
It has been exactly four months since two Cuban doctors, Dr. Landy Rodriguez and Dr. Herera Correa, were abducted by gunmen in Mandera, Kenya, on April 12, 2019.
The doctors, who were stationed in Mandera as part of a medical aid program, were kidnapped in a daring road ambush by suspected al-Shabaab militants who killed one of the police officers escorting them.
Since their abduction, little is known about the government's efforts to rescue the doctors, with Mandera police commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom stating that 'efforts are ongoing to rescue the doctors but I don’t know when they will be released. What I know is that they are alive wherever they are.'
Local elders had volunteered to negotiate the doctors' release, crossing the border into Somalia on April 20, 2019, with El-Adde as their first destination. They reported being mistreated by the militants and were eventually able to meet the doctors after two weeks in El-Adde.
However, the negotiations were unsuccessful, with the elders unable to agree on a ransom figure with the militants. Intelligence sources suggest that the Cubans were abducted by bandits who handed them over to suspected al-Shabaab militants, who sought ransom through proxies.
