Cuban doctors abducted in Kenya

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Unidentified gunmen abducted two Cuban doctors and killed a police officer near Kenya’s border with Somalia, television broadcaster KTN News and the Daily Nation newspaper reported.

The Daily Nation said the attackers drove off with the doctors, employed by the Kenyan government, after the shooting in Mandera.

KTN News said police suspect the doctors and their abductors, thought to be members of the Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group, went into Somalia.

Kenyan Citizen television footage showed police officers setting up a roadblock leading to the border.

Mandera has seen of frequent attacks in which dozens of civilians and security personnel killed. Al Shabaab took responsibility for most.

In November, gunmen wounded five people including two children and kidnapped an Italian charity worker in Chakama, a small town south of the Somali border. The fate of the Italian woman is unknown.

Al Shabaab are fighting to topple Somalia’s central government and establish their own rule based on their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

The group conducts frequent assaults in Kenya, mostly bordering Somalia, to put pressure on the Kenyan government to withdraw its troops from Somalia.

On Tuesday, the US embassy upgraded its travel warning for Kenya, listing “do not travel” for Mandera county.

“Exercise increased caution in Kenya due to crime, terrorism and kidnapping,” the warning read.