The UN mission will visit Naagorno Karabakh for the first time in thirty years following the mass exodus to Armenia

The United Nations will send a mission to Nagorno Karabakh this weekend to primarily assess humanitarian needs, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric announced. specifying that the organization has not had access to this region “for approximately 30 years.”

“The government of Azerbaijan and the UN agreed to send a mission to the region. The mission will take place this weekend,” he said.

“We have not had access to this region for about 30 years,” due to “the complicated geopolitical situation,” “so it is very important that we can get in,” added the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General to it.

The team of about ten people led by officials from the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) “will seek to assess the situation on the ground and identify humanitarian needs, both for people left behind and for those who have been displaced .”

“We must remember that everyone must respect international law, especially human rights law,” he added.

The exodus of Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh continued this Friday despite Azerbaijani authorities urging them to remain in the separatist territory that announced the dissolution of the republic on Thursday after the military defeat.

During their flight along the only road connecting this area with the Republic of Armenia, At least 170 people were killed in a fuel tank explosion on Mondayaccording to a new report released Friday by the separatist forces’ police.

Exodus to Armenia

The European Union demanded on Friday that a United Nations mission could travel to Nagorno Karabakh “in the coming days” given the “mass exodus” of Armenians fleeing this enclave following the military operation in Azerbaijan.

Dujarric also explained that the UN is working with the Armenian government to address this influx of refugees crossing the border.

Within a few days, 93,000 people, or more than three-quarters of the area’s 120,000 inhabitants, According to the latest report from Yerevan, they left their homes.

And the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh fear reprisals from Azerbaijan, despite President Ilham Aliyev’s reassurance this Friday that he would guarantee their rights.

Nagorno-Karabakh, with an Armenian and Christian majority, seceded from Muslim-majority Azerbaijan during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan launched a military offensive on September 19, 2023 in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, a separatist enclave home to some 120,000 ethnic Armenians.

Following a ceasefire agreed on September 20, 2023, Azerbaijan opened all checkpoints with Armenia for the unhindered departure of civilians from the disputed territory. The Armenian government announced the evacuation of more than 85,000 local residents from Nagorno-Karabakh and a humanitarian center has been established in the village of Kornidzor, near the so-called Lachin corridor, the main route between Armenia and the separatist region.

Nagorno-Karabakh will cease to exist as a self-proclaimed state on January 1, 2024. the region’s separatist leader Samvel Shakhramanyan announced on September 28, after signing a decree to dissolve all its institutions. (JO)