More than 100,000 refugees have arrived in Armenia since Azerbaijan's military operation to retake control of Nagorno-Karabakh, the United nations said, while thousands more endured long hours of delay in a huge traffic jam at the border.
"Many are hungry, exhausted and need immediate assistance," Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said on social media late on Friday. "International help is very urgently required."
Italy said Armenia had asked the European Union for temporary shelters and medical supplies to help it deal with the refugees.
Siranush Sargsyan, a freelance journalist who has been reporting on the flight of the ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, told Reuters thousands of people, their belongings crammed into cars, trucks and tractors, were stuck on the mountain highway leading to Armenia.
Many required urgent medical attention, Sargsyan said. "As you can see, we are still stuck on the road."
"This exodus is already unbearable physically because we have already spent 16 hours on this road... It seems in the next 24 hours we still won't be able to reach the border."
Following a lightning Azerbaijani offensive that returned the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, many of Karabakh's 120,000 Armenians began what became a mass exodus towards Armenia.
Azerbaijan said that one of its servicemen was killed by sniper fire from Armenian forces in the border district of Kalbajar, but the alleged incident was denied by Armenia.
Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are seen in the center of the town of Goris on September 30 before being evacuated in various Armenian cities.
Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are seen in the center of the town of Goris yesterday before being evacuated to various Armenian cities.
