Humanitarian aid enters Nagorno-Karabakh via Armenia and Azerbaijan | Conflict News

The supply of humanitarian aid is resuming in the region after an agreement between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan, according to Baku and the Red Cross.

Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entered Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region after Armenian separatists and the central government agreed to use roads linking it to Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to Baku.

Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of provoking a months-long humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku last year blocked the only road linking the mountainous region to Armenia. It’s called the Lachin Corridor and Russian peacekeepers guard it.

Azerbaijan has rejected the accusation, arguing that Nagorno-Karabakh could receive all the supplies it needs through Azerbaijan.

Baku said separatist authorities simply refused its proposal to simultaneously reopen the Lachin corridor and the Aghdam road, which connects Nagorno-Karabakh to the rest of Azerbaijan.

On Monday, “the simultaneous passage of Red Cross cars was ensured” in the Lachin corridor and the Aghdam road, Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said on social networks.

“The entire international community has once again noted that there is no so-called blockade but a deliberate self-blockade, militarization and politicization of humanitarian issues and theatrical dramas,” he said. he declared.

“(Thanks) to a humanitarian consensus among decision-makers, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is today delivering shipments of wheat flour and essential medical supplies to people in need via the Lachin Corridor and the Aghdam road,” the statement said. » declared the ICRC.

The residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, who are predominantly of Armenian origin, “urgently need sustained assistance through regular humanitarian shipments. This consensus has allowed our teams to resume this life-saving work,” said Ariane Bauer, ICRC regional director for Europe and Central Asia.

The European Union and the United States have called for the reopening of the Lachin and Aghdam roads for humanitarian aid, as Nagorno-Karabakh experiences shortages of food and medicine.

The crisis which has lasted for several months as well as the deployment of troops by Baku near Nagorno-Karabakh and along the border with Armenia have raised fears of a new widespread conflict between the two sworn enemies, who have fought two wars for control of the region.

Six weeks of fighting ended in 2020 with a Russia-brokered truce. The ceasefire saw Armenia cede swathes of territory it had controlled since the 1990s.

The two sides have failed to reach a lasting peace settlement despite mediation efforts by the European Union, the United States and Russia.