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Editor’s note: This article contains details of the Bosnian War that some may find disturbing.
Between 1992 and 1995, the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina was devastated by a brutal war that killed 100,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.
It was a conflict defined by ethnic cleansing. Armed forces deliberately targeted Bosniak Muslims — killing, raping, torturing, looting and pillaging, and violently forcing Bosniak populations from their homes.
More than 30 years later, Bosnia is still scarred by the conflict.
March 1995: Bosnian Serb leaders ordered the creation of unbearable conditions for the town’s people. Food and water were cut off, and civilians began dying of starvation.
July 6, 1995: Serb forces launched a final offensive. As the town came under heavy bombardment, thousands of terrified civilians fled to the UN base in Potocari, hoping for protection.
July 11, 1995: Bosnian Serb military entered Srebrenica, stating, “The time has come to take revenge on the Muslims.” Around 25,000 civilians had gathered at the UN base, seeking safety and refuge.
That night became one of the darkest moments in Srebrenica’s history. Soldiers brutally assaulted women, abducted people at random, and systematically murdered men and boys. 10,000 men and boys fled into the forests, only to be captured, and executed.
July 12-13, 1995: Over 20,000 women and children were forcibly transported to Bosniak-held territory. Men and boys as young as 12 were separated, detained, and executed or sent to camps. By July 13, 1995, almost no men or boys remained.
July 14, 1995: In what would become the largest massacre on European soil since the Holocaust, the soldiers began their mass executions of the men held in Bratunac.
Thousands were murdered. Their bodies were then pushed by bulldozers into mass graves. There are horrifying reports of some being buried alive, while remains found later recovered show signs of torture.
Months after the massacre, soldiers attempted to cover up their crimes by scattering the remains across different mass graves. The Srebrenica Memorial Centre reports that the remains of those murdered at Srebrenica have so far been found in 94 mass graves across eastern Bosnia.
The list of atrocities committed during the Bosnian conflict is long, but the events of Srebrenica stand out as a moment that finally captured the attention of the world.
On 11 July 1995, Bosnian Serb soldiers captured Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and over the next few days, systematically murdered more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys.
It was the largest massacre carried out on European soil since World War II and was recognised as a genocide by the United Nations.
Today, Srebrenica is a quiet town that feels frozen in time.
From a pre-war population of 10,000 people, now only 2,000 remain. There are very few jobs available and those who still live there are surrounded by reminders of the violence.
Tima is a 70-year-old survivor of the Srebrenica Genocide.
In 1992, her village was attacked, forcing her family, including her 4 children — Nedzad, Hurija, Amela and Inela — to flee. “I had to leave because they set the house on fire. They killed whoever they could. We never returned. Whoever stayed was killed.
“I was carrying bags and dragging my children’s clothes [behind us]. I was also carrying my younger children in my arms. It was a battle for survival. The only goal was to stay alive.
“When I arrived in Srebrenica, all I wanted was to lay down with my children. I was physically exhausted from carrying my children for 3 months on my back in the snow.
“There was no proper accommodation. The people who were already there did not want to accept us into their own homes, so we had to improvise in the woods by making huts out of plastic and cardboard. The Swedish [NGOs] helped us when they took us into some small houses where the accommodation was much nicer.
“Humanitarian aid started arriving eventually. We received 1kg of flour, and it was supposedly to last us the whole month which is impossible. War is war and it is extremely difficult to survive. Those who received humanitarian aid had a chance of survival, but the ones who did not had no chance. I hope war never happens here again.”
Tima’s husband and son were caught by the VRS. Her husband, Alija, was tragically killed in Kasaba, eastern Bosnia, while Nedzad was taken to a mass execution site.
All men who were considered to be old enough to fight were taken to the mass execution site. “Nedzad was shot 4 times but, somehow, he survived and managed to make it Tuzla. I remember he was in an extremely poor condition, so bad that he could not even go to the bathroom by himself. I had to help him with everything,” she says.
The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement ended the Bosnian War, providing people with an opportunity to search for their missing relatives. It was only then that Tima discovered that her husband had died during the fall of Srebrenica in 1995.
“I found out when the Red Cross started looking for grave sites after the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed. There was a mass search for missing bodies once the agreement was signed, so that was when they found my husband’s body.”
Tima and 2 of her daughters later received support from Islamic Relief.
“Islamic Relief accepted me and 2 of my children, who were small at the time, into the Orphan Sponsorship Programme. It was good for me as I took a small loan from Islamic Relief which helped me educate my children. I am very grateful to Islamic Relief as I would not have been able to get a loan from anywhere else. I simply wish to thank you a lot and to thank the organisation which sponsored my 2 girls.”
Tima currently splits her time between Tuzla and Srebrenica, where Nedzad lives, though returning there is still hard for her.
“It was not easy for me to return to Srebrenica. When my Nedzad finished his schooling, he was offered a job here. He could not choose the location of the job, which happened to be Srebrenica, so I followed him. I did not want to return.
“It’s nice [and] for now, it is safe. Once you experience something extremely frightening, even small things shake you up afterwards. I would love to take my son away from Srebrenica, but what can I do? Considering Nedzad is employed here, we must stay here.
“For now, everything is good, my children are doing well thanks to God. I am also healthy even though the years are catching up to me.”
Scattered throughout Srebrenica are abandoned homes, walls studded with bullet holes. No one knows who owns them, so they have remained derelict and empty for more than 30 years.
The town is surrounded by forests which acted as cover for a huge group of 10,000 Bosniak men and boys who fled the events of the genocide, trying to reach the free city of Tuzla more than 60 miles away. Just 3,000 people survived the perilous journey that has since become known as the ‘death march.’
Located outside of Srebrenica is the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial which stands as a monument to the 8,732 victims of the genocide. The figure of those murdered is not final. There are spaces left in the centre as every year, new graves are unearthed and new victims found.
Many of the victims of the genocide came from towns like Bratunac. Before the war, Bosniak Muslims made up some 64% of the population. Now, in 2026, they make up just 34%.
Pictured is the Kravice warehouse, one of dozens of sites across eastern Bosnia where victims were murdered in the thousands. It is estimated that between 1,000 and 1,500 men were killed at Kravice.
There are so many locations like Kravice across Bosnia and Herzegovina, they blend into the countryside. Locals pass by them every day, sometimes they even live next door to them.
Mass graves are dotted across eastern Bosnia, often in the most unassuming locations. The Srebrenica Memorial Centre reports that remains of those murdered at Srebrenica have so far been found in 94 mass graves.
Pictured is the grave located at Cerska, 17 miles from Srebrenica. The grave was exhumed in 1995 and contained 150 remains of victims estimated to range from age 14 to 50 years at the time of their deaths.
On the outskirts of the town of Vlasenica, another mass grave is hidden by forest.
Over a period of 8 years, 54 victims were found buried here. Among that number were 11 children aged from 4 to 12 years old.
Decades later, memories of the war remain unavoidable in Bosnia. There are reminders everywhere, the very land itself is scarred.
An entire generation of Bosnians only know their parents from photographs and home videos. Whether they lost fathers to the Srebrenica Genocide, or mothers, brothers and sisters in the conflict, many people live every day feeling the losses of war.
To date, 8,372 Bosniak men and boys are confirmed to have been killed between July 13-19, 1995, while more than 1,000 are still unaccounted for. One survivor shared, “31 years later, bodies are still being found.”
After the war, which left 4.2 million Bosnians displaced, Islamic Relief established an office in Sarajevo and served communities to rebuild homes, schools, and provide Ramadan and Qurbani programming.
Through our emergency and development projects, we implement food security, livelihood, non-food items, education, and psychosocial support, with a focus on income-generating projects.
In recent years, their work has expanded to include sustainable livelihoods projects— offering vocational training, small business support, and agricultural assistance to help families become self-reliant. Their work also includes psychosocial support for war-affected populations and efforts to promote social cohesion in divided communities.