Cuban doctors kidnapped by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Suspected Somali Al-Shabaab jihadis kidnapped two Cuban doctors Friday and killed their police protection officer in northeastern Kenya, police sources said.

They said the two doctors and their guard were on the way to work in the town of Mandera when they were attacked.

“It just happened this morning. The police officer is dead but the two doctors were taken away,” a senior police officer, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

“From the modus operandi and the fact that they went towards the Somalia border, we have reasons to believe that the kidnappers are Al-shabaab.”

The two doctors are part of a group of about 100 Cubans who came to Kenya last year to help boost health services.

Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militants have been waging an insurgency against Somalia’s foreign-backed government for over a decade, and while it has lost some ground, continues to stage deadly attacks.