Red Cross says Azerbaijan ordered it to leave the country

(Reuters) - The government of Azerbaijan has told the local office of the International Committee of the Red Cross that it will close its operations there, a spokesperson for the Geneva-based organisation said on Wednesday.

"We have been made aware of the Azerbaijani government's intentions for the ICRC to close our delegation in Azerbaijan," spokesperson Ilaha Huseynova told Reuters. "We are currently in contact with authorities."

Azerbaijani officials were not immediately available for comment outside normal working hours.

The ICRC, which has operated in Azerbaijan since 1992, is the only organisation with access to a group of former officials in the ethnic Armenian administration of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh who are held in jail in Baku.

One of those officials, Ruben Vardanyan, who once held the No. 2 position in the territory, has been on hunger strike since mid-February. He and 15 other ex-officials as well as civilian and military figures are currently on trial for charges including terrorism.

Vardanyan and the others were recaptured by Azerbaijani troops as they and 100,000 other ethnic Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan captured the territory in a lightning offensive in September 2023.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Leslie Adler)