January 25, 2002	Friday	Ziqa’ad 10, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: The executive director of the World Food Programme, Catherine Bertini, will arrive in Islamabad on Monday on a five-day trip to review WFP operations aimed at assisting the poor Afghans facing the devastating impact of war and drought.

Speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday, the WFP spokesperson, Khaled Mansour, said the executive director will visit both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

During her stay, the WFP executive director would meet with senior officials in Islamabad, visit refugee camps, and visit schools in the northwest Frontier Province where WFP is working with the government to increase the enrolment and retention of girls in primary schools.

The spokesperson said, Ms Bertini’s visit to Kabul is viewed in the perspective of revising WFP operations in Afghanistan where the UN agency is currently trying to assist almost six million people in an immediate emergency.

AFGHANISTAN SITUATION: Extreme winter conditions with temperatures as low as -67 degree Celsius, snow and rainfall are making food deliveries difficult to some parts of Afghanistan, especially in the north.

The spokesperson said the air operations were also impacted, and Mazar-I-Sharif remained cut off for several days.

Mr Mansour said in Faizabad, it snowed and rained almost non-stop for several days.

With heavy snowfall, he said, the WFP is anticipating cutting off the vital route for WFP food aid deliveries from Tajikistan to Faizabad if snow accumulated on the road between Faizabad and Ishkashem. Reports from the Ishkashem-Faizabad road indicate the temperature hit a low mark of -67 Celsius at the high altitude parts of the road on Wednesday, he said.