Efforts continue to locate abducted UN refugee worker in Guinea
19 September -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is taking all possible measures to find the aid worker abducted yesterday in Guinea in an attack that left another staff member dead, the UN agency said today.
Briefing the press at UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva, spokesman Kris Janowski said there was still no information on the whereabouts of Sapeu Laurence Djeya. "We are doing all in our might to locate her and obtain her release," Mr. Janowski said. "We are gravely concerned about her."
Ms. Djeya was last seen on Sunday morning in Macenta when she was dragged away by gunmen from the burned residence of UNHCR worker Mensah Kpognon, who was murdered by the assailants. In the wake of yesterday's atttack, staff from UNHCR and its partners throughout Guinea are travelling to Conakry for a meeting with the agency's top regional official, who is expected to arrive from Abidjan if the security there permits him to do so, the spokesman said.
"Our security concerns are made even greater because of the amount of misinformation being peddled in the region," Mr. Janowski said, referring to a "dangerous and outrageous fabrication" published in a paper alleging that UNHCR and other international organizations operating in Guinea were supporting dissidents in Liberia. "Spreading these kinds of lies poses a direct threat to aid workers and the neutral, humanitarian nature of our work," he said.
On Thursday, UNHCR staff and workers from other organizations will hold gatherings and marches throughout the world to protest the increasingly brutal violence against aid workers.
Sunday's killing and abduction follows the murder of three UNHCR staff members in West Timor on 6 September, bringing to 198 the total number of civilians who have lost their lives since 1992 while serving with the UN.
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