Residents of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, mainly populated by Armenians, point to empty store shelves and "critical" healthcare backlogs after Azerbaijan shut the only road linking the region with mainland Armenia. Azerbaijan said on Tuesday it was shutting the road, accusing the Armenian branch of the Red Cross of smuggling. "We are facing real threats of starvation," human rights lawyer Gegam Stepanyan tells AFP, "and if the situation continues like this, we will end up in a humanitarian disaster. Karabakh has been at the centre of a decades-long territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have fought two wars over the mountainous territory. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES