According to CNN, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees appealed to the Azerbaijani authorities to unblock the Lachin corridor, the only route linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. Azerbaijani checkpoints have been standing there for seven months now.
In their statement, UN experts claim that a “serious humanitarian crisis” has arisen in Nagorno-Karabakh due to a transport blockade: local residents suffer from a lack of food, medicine and hygiene items. Unblocking the Lachin corridor, according to the statement, is necessary for humanitarian reasons, so that the population of the region can again receive their usual daily products: sunflower oil, fish, sugar, baby food, and so on.
Former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, added that without food and essential supplies, the Armenians blocked in Nagorno-Karabakh would begin to die of starvation and disease in a few weeks.
The blockade of the Lachin corridor, according to UN experts, affected about 2,000 pregnant women, 30,000 children, 20,000 elderly people and 9,000 people with disabilities. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on Azerbaijan to comply with international obligations and the terms of the tripartite statement of 2020, and also asked Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh to protect the corridor.
This year, the Armenian authorities have already twice appealed to the UN with demands to influence the official position of Baku and open the Lachin corridor. In turn, the Azerbaijani authorities demand that the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh obey the laws of Azerbaijan.
