Release of abducted nurses welcomed

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers has welcomed the release on Monday of five nurses who had been held captive by Liberian rebels for two and a half months. Rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) group abducted the nurses, who work for the local non-governmental organisation, Medical Emergency Relief Cooperative International (Merci), on 20 June. The rebels had attacked Sinje camp, 80 km northwest of the Liberian capital, Monrovia. At least 24,000 Sierra Leonean refugees and displaced Liberians lived at the camp. The abductees worked in a health center in the camp from which the rebels also took an ambulance. Two LURD representatives, UNHCR said, handed over the nurses late on Monday at Badiaro in southern Guinea near the border town of Macenta, following negotiations. The nurses "were visibly traumatized by their 10-week ordeal and three were suffering from malaria," UNHCR said. They were taken to Macenta for a police check and then to Nzerekore to receive medical care before being taken to the Guinean capital, Conakry. The executive director of Merci, Tete Korboi Brooks, told IRIN on Tuesday from Monrovia that the nurses - all Liberians - had reportedly been kept well. The nurses released were: Maria Okwoumu, Lydia Weah, Annie Wallace, Victoria Johnson and Cecilia Beyan. At least 30 other staff of the health centre in Sinje fled the LURD attack, mainly to Sierra Leone. They returned later to Liberia. The health center, which catered for between 125 and 150 internally displaced people, refugees and local people daily, has remained closed since the attack, Brooks said. "The centre was the only remaining provider of family health care in the Sinje area of Grand Cape Mount County after the main hospital and other health centres had been forced to close," she told IRIN. "The flow of patients had increased following intensifying fighting in the area." Last week, the Liberian army in Monrovia released another Merci employee, Nyerku Na. He had been arrested after his return from Sierra Leone, where he fled following the 20 June attack on Sinje. Merci, which started activities in Liberia in 1990, also provides family health care services in Montseraddo and Maryland Counties. It's activities are supported by UNHCR.