Monday April 15, 2024
They are Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodríguez Hernández, kidnapped by al Shabaab but who according to the jihadist group were killed in a raid carried out by the United States
The government of Cuba is in contact with the United States to try to resolve the case of Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodríguez Hernández, two of his doctors kidnapped in Somalia by al Shabaab but who, according to the jihadist group, were killed in a raid carried out in the country by the United States Africa Command (Africom).
In a statement, the Cuban Foreign Ministry (Minrex) reiterated that "hope and efforts will not cease until the truth is learned." “We await an official response to the questions that Cuba has respectfully presented, with the elements that the civil and military agencies of the United States operating in Somalia and in that region of the world”, underlined Minrex, requesting a response from Washington on the dossier of the two doctors. According to what Al Shabaab reported on February 17, the two died in an attack carried out two days earlier in Gelib, a city in Middle Juba located between Mogadishu and Kismayo.
The two professionals had been hired by Kenya as part of an intergovernmental cooperation agreement with Somalia, in which they had participated voluntarily.
In the note, Havana thanks Cuba, Somalia and Kenya - the country where the two were kidnapped - for the efforts made in the attempt to free them after the jihadist kidnapping, but underlines that five years have now passed since the events. The two were kidnapped in the city of wood and their driver was convicted of planning their kidnapping. Minrex underlines that since the news of the "cowardly and absurd kidnapping" spread, the governments of Kenya, Somalia and Cuba have made countless and enormous efforts to save the two doctors and bring them home. However, since word spread of their possible killing in an anti-terrorism raid, no follow-up has been given to the story and no evidence has been provided that would allow us to reach definitive conclusions and clarify whether the doctors are still alive or confirm their death.