UN team in Nagorno-Karabakh, a first in 30 years, as ethnic Armenians flee

A United Nations mission has arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh during a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the region after Azerbaijan recaptured the breakaway enclave last month.

An Azerbaijani presidency spokesman said the UN mission arrived in the region on Sunday morning, mainly to assess humanitarian needs.The mission, led by a senior UN aid official, is the global body’s first access to the region in about 30 years.

Armenia has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Azerbaijan to withdraw all its troops from civilian establishments in Nagorno-Karabakh and give the UN access.

The ICJ in February ordered Azerbaijan to ensure free movement through an area known as the Lachin Corridor leading to and from the region.

The World Health Organization on Sunday said well over 100,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh had travelled to neighbouring Armenia.

Armenian separatists, who had controlled the region for three decades, agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Baku following a one-day Azerbaijani offensive last week.

‘Ghost town with no soul’
The end of Karabakh’s separatist bid dealt a heavy blow to a centuries-old dream by Armenians of reuniting what they say are their ancestral lands, divided among regional powers since the Middle Ages.

Nearly all of Karabakh’s estimated 120,000 residents fled the territory over the following days, sparking a refugee crisis.

Reporting from the Nagorno-Karabakh city that is called Stepanakert by Armenians and Khankendi by Azerbaijanis, Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid said tens of thousands of people deserted the area in the past few days in what can only be described as a “mass exodus”.