A remembrance ceremony was held Tuesday at Camp Butmir to mark the 13th anniversary of a helicopter crash which claimed the lives of 11 EUFOR personnel from the Republic of North Macedonia.

On January 12, 2008, a military helicopter carrying troops home from the EUFOR mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina crashed near its final destination of Skopje. Tragically, all 11 personnel on board were killed.

Taking part in the ceremony were COMEUFOR, Major General Reinhard Trischak and the Ambassador of the Republic of North Macedonia, His Excellency Mr Ekrem Ebibi. During the ceremony, soldiers from EUFOR formed an Honour Guard by the memorial stone. Wreaths were laid and eleven candles were lit to signify the lives lost.

The European Union Force Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR), is a military deployment in Bosnia to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

In 2007, EUFOR had 600 troops from 22 countries, mostly from the member states of the European Union (EU). There are, however, additional troops from other non-EU member states such as Chile and Turkey.

As of March 2019, the total force of EUFOR are at 600 troops from 20 countries, including EU member states and non-EU “Troop Contributing Countries” (TCC) are present within EUFOR (Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom).