Díaz-Canel talks again with Kenyan president about kidnapped doctors

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The Cuban president assured on Twitter that during the telephone conversation both governments ratified "that we will continue working together to achieve the safe return of Landy and Assel to the homeland," two days after the island's foreign ministry denied news of the alleged release of the doctors.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, spoke by telephone this Friday, two days after the Cuban government denied news about the alleged release of two Cuban doctors kidnapped in that African country in 2019.

"I had a useful telephone conversation with the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta where we exchanged on bilateral and multilateral issues," wrote the Cuban president on his Twitter profile, Prensa Latina reported .

Furthermore, Díaz-Canel assured that during the telephone conversation both governments ratified "that we will continue working together to achieve the safe return of Landy and Assel to the homeland.

Surgeon Landy Rodríguez and general medicine specialist Assel Herrera were kidnapped on April 12, 2019, when the car in which they were going to the hospital in the border town of Mandera was attacked by alleged members of the terrorist organization Al Shabab.

The bodyguard who was traveling with the Cuban doctors lost his life in the operation. Months later, the driver of the car was charged with terrorism for his alleged complicity in the kidnapping of the Cuban specialists who, according to reports from the Kenyan security forces, were taken to Somalia.

Since then, the highest authorities of Cuba have maintained frequent contacts with the authorities of Kenya and Somalia to ensure the release and return to the island of the doctors.

This Wednesday, several news reports indicated that the doctors had been released by their captors, after negotiating with Somali intelligence forces, but the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied this information and then the government of Somalia also denied the alleged operation.

The spokesman for the Island's Foreign Ministry, Juan Antonio Fernández, confirmed that Cuba is closely following the issue, which arouses the greatest interest on the part of the population.

He also pointed out that the efforts and enormous efforts continue to guarantee the release and safe return of the aid workers to their homes, the source indicates.

For his part, Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Ise Awas said that his government continued to work "to free the hostages and continues to cooperate with the Cuban government", but that "the release has not yet occurred."

Awas also explained that the negotiations between the Somali Intelligence Agency (NISA) and members of the terrorist group Al Shabab, which holds the doctors, were still under way and he claimed to have the responsibility of "rescuing the doctors."