One UN refugee worker dead, one missing following attack in Guinea
18 September -- Armed assailants on Sunday killed a top United Nations refugee official in Guinea and abducted an agency staff member, who remains missing.
Unidentified men killed Mensah Kpognon and set his house ablaze as they retreated from a pre-dawn raid in Macenta, which lies about 70 kilometres east of Gueckedou along Guinea's border with Liberia, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Witnesses saw the men who shot and killed Mr. Kpognon took away a member of UNHCR's office in Danane, Côte d'Ivoire, Sapeu Laurence Djeya, who had brought supplies to Macenta.
In New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "shocked" by the murder and remained "extremely concerned" over the fate of Ms. Djeya, according to Mr. Annan's spokesman. "He strongly condemns this senseless violence against humanitarian workers," spokesman Fred Eckhard said, adding that the Secretary-General appealed to West African leaders to "do whatever they can" to secure the release of Ms. Djeya.
Commenting on the tragedy, High Commissioner Sadako Ogata, who is on mission in Afghanistan, said, "Words fail us at times like this, leaving us instead with many sad and difficult questions. Why are innocent, unarmed humanitarians like Mensah Kpognon -- a father of four children who was simply trying to make the world a better place -- being struck down in the most brutal way?" She also expressed grave concern over the fate of Ms. Djeya and vowed that "UNHCR will do everything in its power" to secure her release. The agency is appealing to authorities throughout West Africa and to the international community to help in this effort.
The 50-year-old Mr. Kpognon, a Togolese national, joined UNHCR in 1994, working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Côte d'Ivoire before his transfer to Macenta in January 1999. His body was discovered at around 8 a.m. on Sunday after a colleague who had lost radio contact with him visited the house, accompanied by military agents. Mr. Kpognon's remains were being transported by road to the Guinean capital of Conakry on Monday morning.
Several Guineans were reported killed and many houses burned during the attack, which began at around 4 a.m. on Sunday, according to an official from the Ministry of Territorial Administration, Decentralization and Security. Sunday's attack in the Macenta area was the second since the beginning of the month, when armed men killed some 50 people in the village of Massadou.
Guinea hosts more than 460,000 refugees, comprised of 330,000 Sierra Leoneans and 126,000 Liberians. According to UNHCR, most of the refugees in the Macenta area are Liberian, but some Sierra Leoneans have also been fleeing into the area following recent attacks by Sierra Leonean rebels.
Mr. Kpognon was the fourth UNHCR staff member murdered in less than two weeks, following the recent killing of three of the agency's staff in West Timor, Indonesia. Today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan conveyed his condolences to the Mr. Kpognon's family, and to the UNHCR staff "who are still mourning" the recent deaths of their colleagues.
For her part, Mrs. Ogata said these incidents raised troubling questions, including how to balance the risks involved in caring for hundreds of thousands of refugees who desperately needed the agency's help.
According to statistics released by the UN today, 198 civilian staff members have lost their lives while serving with the UN since 1992.
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