ROME – A senior World Food Programme executive responsible for the UN agency’s hunger-fighting operations in strife-torn Afghanistan has been suspended from duty in Kabul following an external investigation into sexual harassment allegations, UN sources say.

 The executive,  in charge of a major country operation, was suspended Saturday and was expected to return to Rome headquarters of the WFP for discussions with senior management. He was identified as Mick Lorentzen, the Afghanistan country director in charge since last year of WFP's vast operation in the war-torn country. It is not uncommon for UN executives to be suspended pending investigation and then return to duty after they are cleared or a probe is inconclusive.

 Asked about the case a spokesman for WFP Executive Director David Beasley told the Insider: 

 “WFP does not comment on personnel matters affecting individual staff members. It has a zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment with a formal process for investigating and taking appropriate action on allegations of misconduct.”

 No other details were immediately available. A veteran UN watcher said a recent article in The Guardian about sexual harassment at the UN "caused a degree of panic at the UN in New York and that may have raised the stakes."

 Lorentzen worked for WFP in Iraq and previously was its director of field security for 10 years as well as working for a UN security department in New York where he may have been involved in probing sexual harassment. He earned a Master's degree in disaster management from Leicester University.

 jp