A 40-year-old resident of Artsakh has died of starvation as the humanitarian crisis from Azerbaijan’s more than eight-month-old blockade are having “catastrophic consequences,” according to Artsakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan.
The Human Rights Defender said identified the man as Stepanakert resident K. Hovhannisyan, born in 1983, adding that he died as a result of “chronic malnutrition, protein and energy deficiency.”
Stepanyan’s office also released details from the medical examiner’s report, which indicated that Hovhannisyan’s cause of death was “severe alimentary dystrophy.”
This condition, the coroner’s report said, is caused by general exhaustion due to prolonged and incomplete intake of nutrients, edema, disorder of all forms of metabolism with organ changes and their functional disorders.
“Cachexia, protein-energy deficiency, kwashiorkor (a specific severe type of eating disorder that develops with insufficient protein content in food, the development of the disease is promoted by severe living conditions, low standard of living), bilateral poly-segmental pneumonia with a predominance of the croup element on the right, pulmonary edema, mixed metobolia, hypoxic encephalopathy, dystrophy of internal organs-kidneys, anemia, septic condition, right hydrothorax, chronic malnutrition,” the coroner’s report added.
“The catastrophic consequences of Azerbaijan’s ongoing eight-month-long blockade of Artsakh are more than noticeable and tangible in the public health sector. They primarily affect the health of the most vulnerable groups of the society – children, pregnant women, people with chronic diseases, people with disabilities and older persons,” Stepanyan said.
“The catastrophic food situation caused by the blockade and especially since the two-month-long complete closure, leads to the malnutrition of people and the threat of hunger. The lack of necessary medications and the inability of the full functioning of the healthcare system create direct and undeniable threats to 120,000 population of Artsakh, Stepanyan added.
