Bosnian village buries 19 victims of floods and landslides

2024-10-15 21:03:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

About 2,000 people attended the burial Tuesday of 19 people who lost their lives as a result of floods and landslides in Bosnia and Herzegovina earlier this month.

They were buried in a ceremony in the municipality of Jabllanica in southern Bosnia. Those attending the funeral stood behind a line of imams and other religious leaders, facing the 19 coffins wrapped in green cloth, according to Islamic tradition.

The bodies of the dead were then taken to the graves and covered with earth.

All 19 victims were from Donja Jabllanica, a village in Jabllanica, where the grand mufti of the Islamic Community of Bosnia, Husein Kavazovic, led the burial ceremony.

"Words are not necessary", said Kavazovi?, addressing the participants near the Jabllanica mosque. "Even though the pain is deep and unbearable, we are aware that God decides about our lives. We are mortal."

All the victims died on the night of October 4 when torrential rains caused massive floods and landslides. The storm brought piles of stones, mud and water to the village, destroying many houses.

In northern Herzegovina and central Bosnia, the amount of rain caught people by surprise, and entire areas were cut off as heavy floods destroyed roads and bridges.

In addition to the 19 people who died in Donja Jabllanicë, four people died in Konjicë and three others died in the area of ??Fojnica. One person is still missing.

Bosnian government officials said that the collapse of a quarry was the cause of the large number of victims in Donja Jabllanica.

Rescue teams from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro helped search for missing people in flooded areas over the past week, while engineering units helped with other recovery efforts.

The government of Kosovo announced last week that it will help Bosnia and Herzegovina with 200,000 euros, after the deadly floods.

Aid was also sent through the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism for shelter, electric generators, water pumps and other necessary equipment for displaced people, Bosnia's Ministry of Security said on October 14.

Floods and landslides destroyed at least 230 buildings in Jabllanica, and the estimated damage is around 25.6 million euros./REL