Anger over killing of UNHCR worker, funding shortfall

The US Committee for Refugees (USCR) has reacted angrily to the killing of a UN humanitarian worker in Guinea and lashed out at the international community for what it said was a lack of will to provide the resources aid workers need to do their jobs.

Mensah Kpognon, of Togo, was shot and killed by armed men from Liberia on Sunday while working for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the border town of Macenta. The assailants kidnapped another UNHCR worker, Sapeu Laurence Djeya, of Cote d’Ivoire, and killed up to 34 other people.

Guinea hosts more refugees than any other country in Africa - nearly 500,000 - but UNHCR’s program for protection and assistance to refugees “is chronically under-funded by international donors, leaving dedicated humanitarian workers like Kpognon to put their lives on the line on behalf of the international community, with only half-hearted international support in return,” USCR said on Monday.

UNHCR programmes throughout West Africa, including Guinea, now face a US $27-million funding shortfall in an overall budget of US $77 million, USCR said. UNHCR efforts worldwide are hampered by a funding shortfall of US $347 million in a total budget of US $976 million, it said. The refugee committee warned that the US Congress was poised to pass an appropriations bill that would cut US funding for overseas refugee assistance in Africa to its lowest level in more than a decade.

“It is shameful that donor governments have been unwilling to pay for the protection and assistance that refugees need, while Mensah Kpognon has paid the highest price of all, with his life,” said Jeff Drumtra, USCR Africa policy analyst. “Perhaps a higher budget for refugee protection and assistance would not have saved Mr. Kpognon’s life. But when humanitarian workers such as Mr.
Kpognon are asked to put their lives on the line to help refugees, the international community at the very least should be willing to give them the resources they need to do their job.”