{"id":225461,"date":"2020-08-02T11:59:30","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T15:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=225461"},"modified":"2020-08-02T12:00:31","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T16:00:31","slug":"minister-of-health-kenya-is-working-hard-for-the-return-of-kidnapped-cuban-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/minister-of-health-kenya-is-working-hard-for-the-return-of-kidnapped-cuban-doctors\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister of Health: Kenya is working \u201chard\u201d for the return of kidnapped Cuban doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuban Minister of Public Health Jos\u00e9 \u00c1ngel Portal affirmed the Kenyan government is working \u201chard\u201d to guarantee the \u201csafe return\u201d of two Cuban doctors<\/a> who were kidnapped by suspected members of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group more than a year ago.<\/p>\n

Portal had a telephone conversation with his Kenyan counterpart, Mutahi Kagwe, in which they discussed the situation of doctors Assel Herrera and Landy Rodr\u00edguez, the Cuban minister wrote in his account on Twitter, Cubadebate<\/a><\/em> reported.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/japortalmiranda\/status\/1289036949160951808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1289036949160951808%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fministro-de-salud-kenia-trabaja-arduamente-para-lograr-el-regreso-de-los-medicos-cubanos-secuestrados%2F<\/p>\n

Kagwe also thanked Cuba for its medical collaboration, and highlighted its good results, in particular the doctors\u2019 contribution to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Cuban minister of public health.<\/p>\n

Doctors Assel Herrera, specialist in comprehensive general medicine, and Landy Rodr\u00edguez, specialist in surgery, were kidnapped in the early hours of April 12, 2019, when the car in which they were traveling was intercepted by jihadist militants in the Kenyan town of Mandera, near the border with Somalia.<\/p>\n

In the action, the doctors\u2019 bodyguard was killed. Months later, the driver of the vehicle was prosecuted by the Kenyan authorities for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of the Cuban doctors.<\/p>\n

Although Kenya mobilized the Army and Police to pursue the kidnappers, its troops \u201cfailed to provide an effective response to the attack and Al-Shabaab had all day to move the two kidnapped doctors across the border to their areas in Somalia,\u201d as security consultant Andrew Franklin, a former U.S. marine living in Nairobi since 1981, reminds EFE<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The following month it became known that Al-Shabaab had demanded an amount equivalent to 1.5 million USD for the release of the Cubans. The Kenyan government publicly replied that it would not pay the ransom.<\/p>\n

Kenia se niega a pagar rescate para liberaci\u00f3n de los m\u00e9dicos secuestrados<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n