Nicolas Fleury: ICRC to continue humanitarian programmes in Nagorno-Karabakh

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will continue its activities in Nagorno-Karabakh. This was announced by Nicolas Fleury, the head of the ICRC mission, in Stepanakert at the opening of the photo exhibition dedicated to the ICRC's 150th anniversary of the organization. The exhibition presented 45 photographs of the ICRC's work around the world.

During 2013, in Stepanakert and Shushi, about 290 families in dire need (families of disappeared persons, single elderly people, large families, etc.) have three times received aid from the ICRC in the form of food products and hygiene items. In the Martakert District, Shushi and Stepanakert, more than 60 families of disappeared persons become participants of the ICRC's agricultural projects: they were rendered assistance in purchasing tools, and grants and micro-credits were provided to them.

Five houses inhabited by relatives of disappeared persons have been partially renovated in cooperation with the Ministry of Urban Development of Nagorno-Karabakh. Similar aid was rendered to more than 40 families of victims of land mines and other explosive remnants of the war in the Gadrud District and Stepanakert.

The ICRC also did not ignore the families, whose members were separated during the armed conflict. As a result of the conflict, relatives have been separated, and at present, they live in different places in Nagorno-Karabakh and in Azerbaijan. In 2013, the ICRC organized the exchange of messages and provided telephone communications between members of such families. Besides, the ICRC organized a meeting of members of one such family in the territory of Georgia.

The ICRC's mission continues to collect information on the disappeared persons and "open request for search" at request of close relatives of the disappeared persons.