SUKHUM. Aug 10 (Interfax) - Abkhazia has provided humanitarian aid for Syria by sending about 12 tonnes of bottled drinking water to this country, the Abkhazian foreign ministry said.
"The water is being transported with the assistance of the General Staff of the Abkhazian Armed Forces and the Russian Defense Ministry," a statement said.
The high-quality Kodor drinking water is sourced from water wells in Abkhazia's Gulripshi district.
"Currently around five million people in Syria have no free access to drinking water," the ministry said. "The water crisis was provoked by the armed conflict which has also damaged water-supply systems," the statement says.
"There is a large Abkhazian diaspora living in Syria whose representatives, also part of the Syrian people, are waging the fight against international terrorism," the statement says.
The Abkhazian diaspora in Syria are descendants of the Muhajirs who were displaced from their native Abkhazia by the Caucasian War. According to Abkhazian historians, there are about 8,000-10,000 descendants of Abkhazians and Abazins in Syria.