Samantha Power, head of the US Agency for International Development, issued a statement in which, in particular, she noted:
“This week I visited Armenia and listened to the people who left their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh after the attacks of Azerbaijan on September 19-20. The United States is deeply concerned about the safety of the vulnerable population of Nagorno Karabakh and the more than 50,000 people who have migrated to Armenia. We are grateful to the Government of Armenia for welcoming the displaced and helping them find shelter, as well as to humanitarian organizations working to address acute needs.
Today, I am announcing that USAID has deployed a Natural Disaster Response Team to the South Caucasus region to coordinate US humanitarian assistance. It will assess the situation, identify priority needs for scaling up aid and work with partners to provide urgent assistance.
Last week’s unacceptable military operation has further worsened the already dire humanitarian situation. For nine months, Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor, shutting down a vital lifeline that provided food, medicine, fuel, and trade supplies to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, creating acute shortages.
The Lachin Corridor must remain fully and permanently open so that civilians can freely leave and return, communities can access food, medicine and other essential supplies, and humanitarian organizations can see and meet needs on the ground. Azerbaijan must protect the civilian population, fulfill its obligations to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons in its country, and ensure that its forces comply with the norms of international humanitarian law.
Given the scale of the need, the United States earlier this week announced $11.5 million in humanitarian aid to support communities in the South Caucasus affected by the ongoing crisis. This is in addition to more than $23 million that the United States has provided in humanitarian assistance since 2020 in response to the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. These funds will be used to provide everything from food to psychosocial support to help cope with the damage caused by violence and mass displacement.”
