•The two, Landy Rodriguez and Herera Correa, were kidnapped in a daring road ambush where the gunmen shot and killed one of the police officers guarding the medics.
•The two doctors were being escorted to work when two salon cars blocked their way in the ambush.
Image: COURTESY
The Cuban Foreign Affairs ministry has denied two Cuban doctors who were abducted by al Shabaab militia in Mandera have been released, contrary to reports by the Daily Mail.
The two, Landy Rodriguez and Herera Correa, were kidnapped in a daring road ambush where the gunmen shot and killed one of the police officers guarding the medics.
In a statement on Wednesday, Cuba Foreign Affairs director general Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios denied reports of the doctors' release.
The statement said, "Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios, general director of Press, Communication and Image of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, denies the information that has circulated and that has been replicated by various media and on digital social networks, about the alleged release of the two kidnapped Cuban doctors, Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodríguez Hernández."
"The director of the Foreign Ministry assured that the government authorities are following this issue closely, which arouses the greatest interest on the part of our people. The efforts and enormous efforts continue to guarantee the release and safe return to the homeland of our two health collaborators."
The two doctors were being escorted to work when two salon cars blocked their way in the ambush last year in April.
According to the Daily Mail story, a senior Somali intelligence official told The Associated Press that the doctors were released over the weekend after months of negotiations with their captors.
He declined to give further details.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The abduction, the final straw, pushed the Kibaki administration to send its forces to Somalia to battle al Shabaab.
The two were rescued in 2013, two years after abduction and were safe and healthy.
Miscellaneous cases
In 2010, a Canadian man was kidnapped in Gigiri by a gang of men, who then demanded a ransom of Sh10 million.
The authorities rescued him after four days.
In the same year, an Ethiopian woman was rescued by police in Ngara, Nairobi.
She had been abducted by a gang who demanded Sh3 million.
Still in 2010, November, two Asian men were kidnapped by thugs in Nairobi’s Industrial Area. They said they were members of the Mungiki.
Their families had to pay Sh100,000 for their release.