The BBC has published an article about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), where people are fainting in the bread queues due to Azerbaijan’s blockade since December 2022.
For nearly nine months the Lachin Corridor – the sole route connecting Karabakh to Armenia -- has been blocked by Azerbaijani authorities, resulting in severe shortages of food, medication, hygiene products and fuel in the breakaway region.
Eighteen-year old Hayk (not his real name – Ed.) is standing on the balcony of a modest hotel in Goris on the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan, speaking to his mother on a video call.
"No eggs, no sugar, there are no sweets at all, bread is being rationed, got up at 04:00 the other day to stand in the queue," says his mother, speaking from the Karabakh town of Martakert.
“Armenians are unable to reach their families on the other side of the Lachin Corridor because it has been blocked by Azerbaijan since December,” the BBC article says.
“No independent media have been able to reach the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. Photos and videos of empty shops have been circulating on social media.”
"People are standing in queues for hours to get minimal food rations. People are fainting in the bread queues," local journalist Irina Hayrapetyan says in a recorded voice message from inside the ethnic Armenian enclave.
"We have no fuel for transport and people have to walk many kilometres by foot to stand in queues to buy whatever they can to feed their families."
Since December 12, 2022, the sole road connecting Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia - the Lachin Corridor - has been blocked by Azerbaijan. Baku tightened the blockade on June 15, 2023, banning emergency relief supplies that were carried out by Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross through the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia and the outside world. The move aggravated the shortages of food, medicine and other essential items experienced by the region’s population. On August 15, Karabakh Human Rights Defender’s office reported the first case of death from starvation.
