France allocated more than half a million euros to Azerbaijan to help search for nearly four thousand citizens who disappeared during the first Karabakh war, the embassy said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan reported earlier that 3890 residents of the country, including 719 civilians, have gone missing since the beginning of the Karabakh conflict. Among the missing are also seven participants in the autumn aggravation of the Karabakh conflict, the ministry said in a statement dated August 30.

France has allocated over half a million euros in the form of voluntary contributions to the International Committee of the Red Cross to search for nearly 4,000 Azerbaijanis who disappeared during the first Karabakh war.

The French embassy noted that France will allocate another 400 thousand euros to Azerbaijan to remove mines from the territories.

“Another area in which international cooperation is needed is demining so that internally displaced persons can return to their land. The territories of Karabakh requiring demining are huge. Therefore, I was pleased to officially inform ANAMA (Azerbaijan Agency for Mine Action) that France is ready to donate 400,000 euros for mine clearance this year," French Ambassador to Azerbaijan Zacharie Gross wrote on his Twitter account.

Earlier, Great Britain also allocated money to help Azerbaijan to clear mines from the zone of the Karabakh conflict, where an area of ​​14 thousand square kilometres has not been demined.

From November 10, 2020, to September 8, 2021, mine explosions have killed seven servicemen and 23 civilians and injured 91 soldiers and 37 civilians in the Karabakh conflict zone, according to the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan.

From November 10 of last year to August 31 of this year, 9406 antipersonnel mines, 4092 anti-tank mines and 10 529 unexploded ordnance were discovered and neutralized. 45 755 242 square meters (4575 hectares) of territory were cleared of mines and ammunition, the Azerbaijan Demining Agency informed. According to the ministry, there are still 14 thousand square meters to be cleaned.

As a reminder, on June 12 Azerbaijan handed over fifteen detained servicemen to Armenia in exchange for maps of 97 thousand anti-tank and anti-personnel mines in the Aghdam region. On July 3, at the initiative of the Russian Federation, Armenia provided Azerbaijan with maps of about 92 thousand anti-tank and anti-personnel mines planted in the Fizuli and Zangilan regions. Azerbaijan, in turn, handed over 15 military prisoners whose sentences expired to Armenia.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has released a list of work done in the liberated territories since the November 10 trilateral statement. Minister of Foreign Affairs Leyla Abdullayeva posted on the link on her Twitter account and stated that more than 46,486 mines and unexploded ordnance had been cleared from 15,510 hectares.