The Gali district of Abkhazia lies in the South East of the territory, along the disputed border with Georgia, and is home to an estimated 40,000 Mingrelian Georgians who have managed to return since the end of civil war in the early 1990s.
Neglected by the Abkhazian authorities and sparsely populated compared to pre-war times, post-conflict reconstruction, development and investment has not reached this most impoverished part of the territory.
The Mingrelian people of Gali feel abandoned by both sides of the conflict. They have been left hanging in a state of limbo, acutely aware that they are living on the frontline of a dispute that has yet to be fully resolved. Their future is by no means clear, but for now they get on with life, grateful that they were able to return to their homeland but sad because it is not the place they remember leaving.
Ivor Prickett, 2011 FotoVisura Grant Finalist
