UN MISSION RETURNS FROM MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN

Press Release
AFG/93
PI/1141

UN MISSION RETURNS FROM MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN

ISLAMABAD, 21 May (United Nations Information Centre) -- At the United Nations Information Centre briefing this week, Stephanie Bunker, Spokesperson for the United Nations Coordinator's Office in Afghanistan, announced that the mission of international staff to Mazar-i-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan (17 to 19 May), had returned. It was comprised of six international staff from the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). They had received a warm welcome from local Taliban authorities.

The findings of the mission are currently being assessed. Informal observations however indicate an excess of labour power in Mazar and a corresponding decrease in labour wages. The United Nations team also remarked that the population was resorting to increased sale of personal assets, at levels higher than those seen in 1997, even though wheat prices in Mazar are currently the lowest in Afghanistan. "In short, the situation is increasingly difficult for the most vulnerable people in Mazar, and purchasing power is limited", said Ms. Bunker.

Her statements on the findings of the mission complement remarks made last week at the regular United Nations Information Centre briefing by WFP's Country Director for Afghanistan, M.A. Sackett, who had noted that "the low purchasing power of the Afghan population is the single most important impediment to their access to food."

Ms. Bunker also announced that, on Thursday, a WFP convoy carrying 600 tons of food departed from Kabul for Panjao, in Bamyan Province. Four WFP national staff accompanying the convoy will liaise with Oxfam staff in Panjao, and food distribution may begin as early as Sunday. This will be followed by a similar delivery to Waras district in Bamyan. In total, WFP plans to send 1,800 tons of wheat to over 12,000 families (over 70,000 people). The beneficiaries will be the landless, female headed households and the displaced. Further emergency food distributions to Uruzgon and Wardak Provinces are planned for June, she said.

* *** *