Abkhazia Leader Warns of Energy Crisis Amid Russian Support Delay
(Reuters) - The leader of Abkhazia, a breakaway Georgian region backed by Russia, warned on Saturday that the republic was facing a "humanitarian catastrophe" due to a critical shortage of electricity.
Badra Gunba, Abkhazia's self-styled president, said on Saturday he had appealed to Russia again for assistance with electricity supplies after the acting energy minister said earlier this week that Moscow had not replied to the republic's requests for help.
Earlier this month, the Abkhazian state energy company, Chernomorenergo, said it was reducing electricity supplies to less than three hours during the day to cope with dwindling supplies.
"Turning off the light for 9-11 hours a day is a verdict on the healthcare and education systems," Gunba said in a video address posted to his official Telegram channel on Saturday.
"Abkhazia may face a humanitarian catastrophe. We found ourselves in total darkness, literally and figuratively," he said.
A lush subtropical territory on the Black Sea coast, Abkhazia broke from Georgia's control in a war after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, during which hundreds of thousands of ethnic Georgians fled the region.
Moscow has long supported it and another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia, and recognised them as independent after winning a five-day war against Georgia in 2008.
Abkhazia was plunged into crisis last month when protesters stormed its parliament in opposition to an investment agreement with Russia. Its then-president Aslan Bzhania was forced to resign, and Gunba, vice president at the time, became the interim leader.
The crisis was made more acute by Moscow's decision in September to suspend social payments to Abkhazia that had been used to pay salaries of state employees including doctors and teachers.
Electricity shortages, common in Abkhazia in the winter months, began in early December when low water levels at the Enguri hydroelectric dam forced an emergency shutdown.
On Thursday, an Abkhazian lawmaker was shot dead by another deputy outside parliament in the capital Sukhumi.
The attack happened as lawmakers were preparing to debate legislation to ban cryptocurrency mining, local media reported, which exacerbates the local electricity problems due to the large amounts of energy it requires.
(Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
