— The government of Azerbaijan and the UN have agreed on a delegation to the region. The delegation will be on site during the weekend, says spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
Last week, unrest flared in the region following a blitzkrieg offensive by the Azerbaijani military. The offensive led to Armenian insurgents agreeing to disarm and a cease-fire.
On Thursday, the separatist government in Nagorno-Karabakh announced that it would dissolve by the end of the year. The unofficial republic will thus no longer exist.
According to Dujarric, the UN has not had access to the region for around 30 years due to the “very complicated and delicate geopolitical situation”.
— So it is very important that we will get in, he adds.
It is a group of about ten people led by the UN agency Ocha, with a focus on humanitarian aid, which will assess the needs of the people who remain in the area and those who leave. Stéphane Dujarric also adds that the UN is working with the government of Armenia to deal with the number of refugees leaving the region.
According to Armenia’s government, more than 97,700 people have fled to the country from Nagorno-Karabakh following last week’s events. That is more than 80 percent of the region’s population, which was around 120,000.