The Secretary-General of the International Civil Defence Organization (ICDO) has been elected at a session held in Baku, according to the Azerbaijan Press Agency (APA)

The head of the international relations department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Colonel Arguj Kalantarli, was unanimously elected to the post.

Kalantarli delivered a speech, highlighting the “humanitarian catastrophe on an unimaginable scale” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, noting Palestine is a member state of the ICDO.

“Food, water, medicine, shelter, these are no longer just basic rights, ” he said. Palestinians’ “loved ones are slipping through our fingers”, he added.

The ICDO is an intergovernmental organisation which contributes to the development of systems by countries to help protect populations, property and the environment from natural or man-made disasters and conflicts.

Candidates from four member states of the organisation – Azerbaijan, Serbia, Burkina Faso, and Tunisia – were in the running for the position.