Cuba official in Kenya over fate of abducted doctors

Nairobi, Kenya --- Cuba’s parliament speaker is visiting Nairobi in a bid to uncover the fate of two Cuban doctors abducted in Kenya by Somalia-based jihadists almost five years ago, its foreign ministry said.

The mission by Esteban Lazo comes after Al-Shabaab claimed in a statement that the two doctors had been killed in a US air strike in Somalia last week.

Lazo “has travelled to Kenya in order to engage in urgent procedures with the highest authorities of that country”, the Cuban ministry said in a statement published on Tuesday.

He is “searching for cooperation and clarification, in the light of the recent news published about the possible nonconfirmed death of doctors Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodriguez Hernandez, who were kidnapped in that country on April 12, 2019”.

The statement gave no further details about his itinerary.

The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militant group said the two doctors were killed in “multiple drone strikes” in the southern Somali city of Jilib on February 15.

Its claims could not be independently verified.

The US Africa Command, in a statement to AFP on Monday, confirmed that an air strike had been conducted against the Al-Shabaab network near Jilib on that date.

“We are aware of reports of a strike alleged to have killed two civilians,” it said.

“We do not have any further information at this time about these reports, but we do take all claims of civilian casualties seriously.”

Suspected jihadists seized the two medics in the northeastern Kenyan town of Mandera, where they worked at the local hospital, and took them across the nearby border into Somalia.

They were part of a 100-member Cuban medical brigade working in Kenya under a bilateral agreement.

One of two police officers escorting the doctors was shot dead during the abduction. -