UNHCR international staff called to Conakry after killing

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has called its international staff in Guinea to the capital, Conakry, after a cross-border attack on Sunday claimed the life of one of its workers. Another UNHCR employee was kidnapped.

“All the international staff are now in Conakry for consultations,” Chrys Ache, UNHCR’s resident representative in Conakry, told IRIN on Tuesday.

Mensah Kpognon, of Togo, was shot and killed when fighters from Liberia crossed into the town of Macenta, located 475 km southeast of Conakry, and Sapeu Laurence Djeya, from Cote d’Ivoire, was abducted by the armed men. “We don’t even know where they’ve gone to, whether they’re still in Guinea or whether they have gone to another country,” Ache said. He appealed to regional leaders and the international community to help locate Djeya.

Ache said that in addition to threats of cross-border attacks, it has become increasingly difficult for international UNHCR staff to work outside the capital because of harassment by Guinean vigilante groups who are armed with machetes, sticks and other weapons.

“We had our colleagues in Guekedou who could not move freely yesterday because of vigilante groups formed to track down the rebels,” Ache said. “We feel that for us it is very difficult to work under these conditions.”

He said vigilantes manning makeshift roadblocks were scrutinizing identity cards. At least 5,000 foreigners, most of them from Liberia and Sierra Leone, were detained on 9-10 September by security forces and militant youths after an appeal by President Lansana Conte to defend the country.

In the past month, Guinea has suffered several cross-border attacks by armed men from Sierra Leone and Liberia that have claimed more than 100 lives.
Humanitarian workers who provide assistance to the nearly 500,000 refugees from the two neighbouring countries fear the refugees could be targeted if the tension escalates.