20 killed and hundreds injured after explosion in Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh: After capture, Erdogan rushes to meet Aliyev

At least twenty people have been killed in the explosion of a fuel depot in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

The South Caucasus Health Ministry said on Tuesday that another 290 people had been taken to hospital with injuries of varying severity. The cause of the explosion on Monday evening is still unclear.

The Ministry of Health announced that seven people who had been taken to hospital had died on Tuesday morning. In addition, 13 dead people were recovered from the accident site. Dozens of injured people were in mortal danger. It initially remained unclear what caused the disaster in the Armenian-majority region, which was attacked and defeated by Azerbaijan last week.

Authorities initially spoke of at least 200 injuries after the explosion. Large flames could be seen in photos on social networks. Politician Metakse Akopjan said that at the time of the accident, many people in the camp were queuing for gasoline because they wanted to flee the Azerbaijanis in cars to Armenia.

The region’s human rights office appealed to the international community on the urgent need to fly out people, especially those seriously injured, for treatment. “Nagorno-Karabakh’s medical capacity is not sufficient to save human lives,” said the message on platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, long disputed between the two warring ex-Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, is already catastrophic. Azerbaijanis have been blocking the only Armenian access road for months, making food, medicine and gasoline scarce in the region.

Last Tuesday, authoritarian Azerbaijan launched a military operation to conquer Nagorno-Karabakh. Just a day later, the defeated Karabakh Armenians surrendered. According to Armenian sources, more than 200 people were killed and more than 400 others were injured during the brief fighting. The tens of thousands of Armenian citizens in the region now fear being displaced or oppressed by the new Azerbaijani rulers.

The number of refugees who have traveled to the mother country of Armenia had risen to more than 13,500 people on Tuesday morning. The government in Yerevan has promised the refugees shelter. Serious protests are taking place in the country against the government, which, in the opinion of the demonstrators, has not done enough for the Karabakh Armenians. (rbu/sda/dpa)