AFPNagorno-Karabakh
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 09:06
The International Red Cross today received a convoy of relief supplies into the Nagorno-Karabakh region. After weeks of negotiations, an agreement has been reached to allow humanitarian aid into the area.
Trucks carrying wheat flour and medicines simultaneously crossed the border via the Lachin corridor (from Armenia) and via the Azerbaijani city of Aghdam.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been cut off from the outside world for nine months, resulting in a humanitarian crisis. The only access road to the Armenian region of Azerbaijan has been blocked since December.
XPhotos of the convoy entering the region this morning
“I hope that this consensus will make it possible to send humanitarian convoys in this direction not only today, but also in the coming weeks, so that we can regularly provide aid to those who need it,” said Ariane Bauer, Regional Director of Europe and Central Asia for the Red Cross.
Until mid-June this year, the international aid organization was still able to bring essential goods, such as medicines and baby food, into the area. Because, according to Azerbaijan, contraband was found several times, the Red Cross was also no longer allowed to enter the area.
Correspondent Iris de Graaf was recently in the area and made the following report about the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh:
Why this roadblock leads to hunger and the threat of war
Nagorno-Karabakh has been a source of conflict between the two neighboring countries in the Caucasus since the early 1990s. In those years, the ethnic Armenian enclave managed to secede from Azerbaijan in a bloody civil war.
Since December, the only road link between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the Lachin corridor, has been blocked. No one can enter or leave the enclave, this also applied to aid supplies.
More than a week ago, a deal seemed to be reached between the ethnic Armenian authorities in Karabakh and the government of Azerbaijan. In exchange for allowing aid from Azerbaijan, that country would lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor.
That was the condition from Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenians fear that by allowing only Azerbaijani aid supplies, Azerbaijan will gain control of the area. An adviser to the Azerbaijani president later denied that arrangements had been made to open the routes.
NOSThe South Caucasus with Nagorno-Karabakh in the middle
2023-09-18 07:06:02
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