03 January 2002

UN Health Agency Returns Staff to Afghanistan

The World Health Organization (WHO) is starting to return international staff members to Kabul, according to a January 3 press release.

WHO and other international organizations evacuated their staffs from Afghanistan when security concerns began to increase in September, leaving Afghan nationals to carry out their humanitarian work.

WHO announced that its representative for Afghanistan is returning to the capital and other staff members will follow as facilities to accommodate them are arranged. More than 90 percent of the staff is expected to return to Kabul within one month.

Following is the text of the WHO press release:

As the security situation is improving and the New Interim Administration in Afghanistan is established, World Health Organization (WHO) International Staff evacuated to Islamabad the 12th of September will return to Kabul effective today.

The World Health Organization Representative for Afghanistan, Dr Said Salah Youssouf, is due to travel today to his permanent office based in Kabul. More than 90% of the professional and other staff will move to Kabul in the month from today. The number of staff moving will be first determined by the readiness and availability of accommodation WHO can find in Kabul. A few people will stay in Islamabad, mainly to deal with polio vaccination issues, but also to deal with other work for the Expanded Program on Immunization and also to look after administrative tasks.

Furthermore, several International and National Staff will travel to strengthen WHO sub-offices in Jalalabad, Mazari-I-Charif, Herat, Kandahar, Faizabad, Ghazni and Gunduz.

WHO will have more than 200 International and Local Staff in Afghanistan. WHO has eight sub-offices in the country. WHO's 177 National Staff, who have remained in Afghanistan since the beginning of the crisis, will be soon joined by their international colleagues.

WHO stated that the relocation is important to work closely with the Ministry of Public Health, providing technical guidance, leadership and training. WHO program managers will work in close collaboration with their counterparts in the Afghan Ministry at central and regional level.