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Seized UN worker released in Liberia; Security Council discusses events in region
28 September -- The United Nations refugee agency announced today that its staff member abducted two weeks ago by gunmen in Guinea has been handed over by Liberian troops to Ivorian authorities in Liberia's capital, Monrovia.

Sapeu Laurence Djeya, 37, a national of Côte d'Ivoire, was captured in the Guinean town of Macenta during an attack in which another staff member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was killed. According to a Liberian official, Ms. Djeya walked for five days before being rescued by Liberian troops and taken to Monrovia, where she was presented today to the Ivorian consul, UN officials and local reporters.

UNHCR said in a statement that Ms. Djeya was to be flown home to Côte d'Ivoire today after undergoing treatment for swollen feet at a UN clinic. There were no other details available, and Ms. Djeya was unable to give an immediate account of her 11-day ordeal, according to the agency.

"I am enormously relieved and very grateful to all those who contributed to bring Laurence to safety," said High Commissioner Sadako Ogata at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.

Following the Macenta attack, in which a military garrison was burned and Mensah Kpognon, the head of the UNHCR office there, murdered, UNHCR recalled all its personnel in Guinea to the capital, Conakry.

Meanwhile in New York, the Security Council today expressed concern at recent developments in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, calling the situation in the region "very serious," the Council's President, Moctar Ouane of Mali, told the press today at UN Headquarters.

Council members support the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to resolve the situation and will be following the matter "very closely," Ambassador Ouane said.

The President's statement came after the Council heard a briefing from the UN Secretariat about developments in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.