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Red Cross warns of humanitarian, health crisis in Karabakh

Wednesday, 14 October 2020 2:12 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 14 October 2020 2:12 AM ]

People, who fled the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region due to the ongoing military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region, rest on beds at a refugee support center in Yerevan, on October 13, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned of humanitarian and health crisis in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region amid continued fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia despite a ceasefire.

Martin Schweb, director of the ICRC in the Eurasia region, said in a statement on Tuesday that “hundreds of thousands” of people across the region were affected, with healthcare services coming under strain and even attacked in some cases.

“Today, after two weeks of violent battles that unfortunately are still intensifying (…) we see that there are hundreds of thousands of people affected in the region,” Schweb said.

"Civilians are dying or suffering life-changing injuries," he added. "Homes, businesses and once-busy streets are being reduced to rubble."

Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it is held by ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Armenia since 1992 when they broke from Azerbaijan in a war that killed some 30,000 people.

Azeri, Armenian sides continue shelling over Karabakh dispute amid fears of regional escalation

Fighting between Azeri and Armenian forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory has escalated.

In 1994, a ceasefire was put in place and France, Russia and the US — known as the “Minsk Group” — were tasked with finding out a lasting resolution to the conflict. But for decades, the group has failed to stop sporadic outbreaks of fighting and implement four UN resolutions which demand that military forces leave the occupied territories and hand them over to Azerbaijan.

The latest fighting over the region began on September 27 and has claimed hundreds of lives, with each side blames the other for instigating the deadliest fighting since 1994.

A ceasefire was reached in the early hours of Saturday between the two sides during talks in Russia.

Armenia, Azerbaijan play blame game over violation of humanitarian ceasefire

Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to accuse each other of violating a recent humanitarian ceasefire in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Despite the ceasefire, which aimed to allow an exchange of detainees and the collection of bodies from the battlefield, the Red Cross said on Tuesday that it had not been able to actually proceed to enforce such an exchange.

Schweb underlined that the talks are still ongoing in order to reach an exchange of bodies and prisoners between the two sides, which is one of the goals of the truce that failed to be implemented.

Turkey, which strongly backs Azerbaijan in the region and has had historically poor relations with Armenia, is accused of sending Takfiri militants from Syria to operate in Karabakh.

Russia, a close ally to Armenia, has formerly warned that the fighting could turn the disputed region into a launch pad for terrorists, who could threaten the country's security.

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