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Kenya working with Somalia to rescue kidnapped Cuban doctors

“Our objective is to rescue the victims,” NPS spokesperson Charles Owino told Capital FM News/COURTESY

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 12 – Kenya is working with security agencies from Somalia in a bid to trace and rescue two Cuban doctors abducted from Mandera on Friday morning.

According to the National Police Service(NPS) headquarters, the approach is necessary since the attackers, suspected to be Al-Shabaab militants crossed into Somalia following the 9am incident.

“Our objective is to rescue the victims,” NPS spokesperson Charles Owino told Capital FM News.

More than eight hours after the incident happened, there was no word made publicly from the attackers.

An administration Police officer who was among two guarding the doctors was killed during the incident, that has raised fresh security concerns in the volatile region.

The driver who was taking the doctors from their residential area to work has since been arrested and was being interrogated according to police.

The vehicle, belonging to the Mandera County Government was also recovered.

The two doctors are part of a group of about 100 Cubans who came to Kenya last year to help boost health services in a deal signed between Havana and Nairobi.

The doctors were deployed to the region at a time most Kenyan health workers had abandoned it citing security fears.

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, it continues to stage deadly attacks.

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The terrorists were behind the 2013 attack on Westgate mall that left 67 people dead.

Two years later, on April 2, they attacked Garissa University College, killing 148 people a majority of them being students- this has been termed as Kenya’s worst terror attack.

On January 15, the militants attacked the 14 Riverside Drive complex killing 21 people.

Kenya Defence Forces are part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) engaging Al-Shabaab and though they have been weakened, they still pose a serious security threat to the region.

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