Latest news with #Bosnia
Arab News
a day ago
- Business
- Arab News
Saudi fund extends $32m in loans to Bosnia for education, innovation projects
JEDDAH: Social infrastructure in Bosnia and Herzegovina is set to improve following two Saudi-funded development loans worth $32 million, targeting science, technology, and higher education facilities. The Saudi Fund for Development has allocated $19 million for the construction of a Science and Technology Park, and $13 million for the development and outfitting of a new student dormitory at the Borisa Starovic Public Institution Student Center in Foca, in the country's southeastern region. SFD CEO Sultan Al-Marshad signed the deals with Bosnia's Minister of Finance and Treasury Srdan Amidzic, in the presence of Saudi Ambassador Osama bin Dakhil Al-Ahmadi, according to an official release. The new funding builds on nearly three decades of Saudi-Bosnian cooperation, during which the SFD has financed 27 projects through nine concessional loans totaling over $163 million, along with $53 million in grants supporting post-war reconstruction and long-term development. The first loan agreement is to finance the Construction of Science and Technology Park Project worth $19 million. It includes a multidisciplinary center over 200,000 m² to support technology, economic growth, healthcare, and higher education—bringing together researchers,… — الصندوق السعودي للتنمية (@SaudiFund_Dev) July 21, 2025 'The Science and Technology Park Project aims to establish a multidisciplinary scientific center covering a total area of approximately 200,000 square meters, supporting technological advancement, economic development, health care, and higher education,' the SFD said. 'The center will serve as a collaborative hub for researchers, scientists, and entrepreneurs across various fields,' it added. The student housing project is intended to strengthen the higher education sector by boosting student enrollment and providing improved accommodation to enhance learning opportunities and support broader community development. The agreements with Bosnia and Herzegovina come amid the SFD's broader engagement in the Balkans. In October 2024, Serbia signed three loan agreements worth $205 million with the fund to support its agriculture, education, and energy sectors, underscoring Saudi Arabia's growing development partnerships across Southeastern Europe. Development support that fosters innovation and education.. #Infographic | #SFD signs two development loan agreements worth $32 million to support social infrastructure in #Bosnia_and_Herzegovina. Towards social and economic growth; #ProsperTogether#SFD50 — الصندوق السعودي للتنمية (@SaudiFund_Dev) July 21, 2025 The SFD's activity in Bosnia is part of a larger push across emerging economies. In a separate deal earlier this month, the fund signed a $30 million loan agreement with Tajikistan to finance the Kulob city ring road project. The project aims to enhance regional transit infrastructure by linking Central Asian countries with China and Indian Ocean markets via land routes. It includes the construction of a road and two bridges to improve traffic flow, road safety, and trade efficiency. An SFD delegation led by Al-Marshad also recently participated in the inauguration of the Wayamba University township development project in Sri Lanka. The $28 million initiative, located in the country's northwestern province, includes new construction, classroom renovations, and modern educational equipment to strengthen the higher education sector.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Severe early drought affects people, animals and crops alike throughout Balkan region
A severe drought this summer has left over a thousand cows and horses without water on a mountain in southeast Serbia, forcing the authorities to bring up emergency supplies. In neighboring Bosnia, meteorologists have said that June this year could end up being the driest in recent history, causing huge damage in agriculture.
BBC News
6 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
FC Santa Coloma v Borac Banja Luka
Update: Date: 90'+7 Title: Post Content: Match ends, FC Santa Coloma 0, Borac Banja Luka 2. Update: Date: 90'+7 Title: Full Time Content: Second Half ends, FC Santa Coloma 0, Borac Banja Luka 2. Update: Date: 90'+1 Title: Post Content: Fourth official has announced 6 minutes of added time. Update: Date: 88' Title: Booking Content: Karlo Peric (Borac Banja Luka) is shown the yellow card. Update: Date: 88' Title: Goal! Content: Goal! FC Santa Coloma 0, Borac Banja Luka 2. Karlo Peric (Borac Banja Luka) header. Update: Date: 86' Title: Booking Content: Sebastián Herrera (Borac Banja Luka) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 79' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Borac Banja Luka. David Cavic replaces David Vukovic. Update: Date: 75' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, FC Santa Coloma. Nabil Kheribi replaces Armando León. Update: Date: 75' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, FC Santa Coloma. Aarón Gallego replaces Ot Remolins. Update: Date: 75' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, FC Santa Coloma. Xavi Puerto replaces Mario Mourelo. Update: Date: 74' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Borac Banja Luka. Stefan Marcetic replaces Sandi Ogrinec. Update: Date: 74' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Borac Banja Luka. Damir Hrelja replaces Luka Zoric. Update: Date: 73' Title: Booking Content: Adrià Arjona (FC Santa Coloma) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 71' Title: Goal! Content: Goal! FC Santa Coloma 0, Borac Banja Luka 1. Sebastián Herrera (Borac Banja Luka) right footed shot. Update: Date: 69' Title: Post Content: Second yellow card to Hugo Ferreira (FC Santa Coloma) for a bad foul. Update: Date: 66' Title: Booking Content: Amer Hiros (Borac Banja Luka) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 62' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Borac Banja Luka. Amer Hiros replaces Stefan Savic. Update: Date: 62' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Borac Banja Luka. Karlo Peric replaces Luka Juricic. Update: Date: 61' Title: Booking Content: Moisés San Nicolás (FC Santa Coloma) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 60' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, FC Santa Coloma. Martín Ross replaces Aleix Cisteró because of an injury.
BBC News
6 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Koper v Željezničar
Update: Date: 90'+8 Title: Post Content: Match ends, Koper 3, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo 1. Update: Date: 90'+8 Title: Full Time Content: Second Half ends, Koper 3, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo 1. Update: Date: 90'+6 Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Koper. Damjan Bohar replaces Josip Ilicic. Update: Date: 90'+5 Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Koper. Jasmin Celikovic replaces Kamil Manseri. Update: Date: 90'+2 Title: Booking Content: João Erick (Zeljeznicar Sarajevo) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 90'+1 Title: Post Content: Fourth official has announced 5 minutes of added time. Update: Date: 90' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Koper. Sandro Jovanovic replaces Isaac Matondo. Update: Date: 82' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo. Vini Peixoto replaces Madzid Sosic. Update: Date: 79' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo. Ognjen Obradov replaces Enes Alic. Update: Date: 75' Title: Booking Content: Dzenan Sabic (Zeljeznicar Sarajevo) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 72' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo. Dzenan Sabic replaces Matej Cvetanoski. Update: Date: 68' Title: Booking Content: Kamil Manseri (Koper) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 68' Title: Booking Content: Nik Omladic (Koper) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 67' Title: Booking Content: Metod Jurhar (Koper) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 63' Title: Booking Content: Collin Seedorf (Zeljeznicar Sarajevo) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Update: Date: 59' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Koper. Nik Omladic replaces Deni Juric. Update: Date: 46' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo. Hamza Jaganjac replaces Sulejman Krpic. Update: Date: 46' Title: Substitution Content: Substitution, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo. Aleksandar Boljevic replaces Josip Pejic. Update: Date: 46' Title: Second Half Content: Second Half begins Koper 3, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo 1. Update: Date: 45'+10 Title: Half Time Content: First Half ends, Koper 3, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo 1.
Al Jazeera
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Across 100 kilometres, they walk where Srebrenica's dead once ran
Thirty years later, one man joins thousands on a three-day journey along the once-deadly path of remembrance in Bosnia. More than 7,000 people arrived in a tiny village in Bosnia to commemorate victims [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] More than 7,000 people arrived in a tiny village in Bosnia to commemorate victims [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] Nezuk and Potocari, Bosnia and Herzegovina – Thirty years ago, thousands of Bosniak men and boys emerged emaciated from the forests surrounding the quiet Bosnian village of Nezuk. Their gaunt faces and skeletal frames told only part of the story – visible hints of a far deeper horror that would fully emerge only after the mass graves of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide were found. Today, Sejfudin Dizdarevic, 48, lives a life worlds apart from the desperate men who once fled through these woods. But he and thousands of others have just spent three days walking the same path. 'Knowing this history, it makes you humble,' Dizdarevic said about his participation in the annual remembrance walk called the Peace March. 'Knowing that you are going [on] the path [where] not only people were killed, but also [that those] who survived ... were hiding exactly in the spot [in] which you are marching now.' A banner flies in the village of Nezuk, where the march began on July 8 [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] In July 1995, the town of Srebrenica and surrounding villages fell to Bosnian Serb forces, whose nationalist and territorial ambitions were emboldened by the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. Bosniak males, who were being hunted, fled the area, crossing the thickly forested slopes of eastern Bosnia for days and even weeks on end in a journey now referred to as 'the death march'. During their trek, they evaded deceptive calls by Bosnian Serb forces, who tried to lure them to surrender with false promises of safety. Many of the Bosniak men and boys saw their counterparts slaughtered en masse and were forced to wade through the pungent odour of their corpses stiffening under the blazing July heat. Since 2005, Bosnians and people from around the world have been embarking on the three-day, 100-kilometre (62-mile) walk from Nezuk to the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari, where newly identified victims are still laid to rest each year. Dizdarevic, a Bosnian war refugee who fled to Germany in 1992, has been returning to take part in the march for the last four years and organising groups of nationals from other countries to join him. While Dizdarevic, who is Bosniak, was not personally affected by the Srebrenica genocide, some of his family members were killed during Bosnia's three-year war from 1992 to 1995. 'My intention is to show respect for those who were killed in the genocide,' he explained. The marchers walked along rolling green hills and stony slopes [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] The marchers walked along rolling green hills and stony slopes [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] The first day of the march this year, July 8, was unbearably hot, the sun beating down on the nearly 7,000 people beginning their days-long journey. Spectators lined the march's path, stepping out into their front yards to offer quiet acts of solidarity – holding signs commemorating the genocide, handing out food, and passing bottles of water to the participants. People wore coordinated outfits, many featuring slogans in remembrance of the genocide. Dizdarevic's group of 40 included Bosniaks, Germans, Turks, Americans and a Dutch nurse who had first come to Srebrenica during the war with Doctors Without Borders. Dizdarevic, centre, and his group during the march [Courtesy of Sejfudin Dizdarevic] As a veteran of the march, Dizdarevic advised his group to begin physically training as early as February, but he struggled to prepare them emotionally. 'When you talk to some people who survived genocide and they tell you your story ... there is no way to prepare for that,' he explained. The scars of his country's past still resonate deeply with Dizdarevic, and he feels a duty to raise awareness about it. It's what drives him to organise others to take part. On that first day, Dizdarevic heard a swirl of languages being spoken around him, which underscored just how far people had come to show their solidarity. 'It's very important to me that the people will learn the lessons of this genocide because if we don't draw the right lessons from this genocide, [the victims] were killed in vain,' he said. As the day stretched into late afternoon, and the marchers continued across rolling green hills and stony slopes, the sweltering heat suddenly gave way to unexpected showers and powerful gusts of wind. But Dizdarevic and his team were prepared for all weather conditions. Eventually, night fell, and the group arrived in the village of Josanica, where they camped for their first overnight stop. As is common among marchers, Dizdarevic arranged for his group to stay at the home of Srebrenica genocide survivors – some slept inside, while others pitched tents in a yard wet from the rain. Their bellies full from food handed out by strangers and charities supporting the marchers, they had only one resolve: to complete the walk. Dizdarevic met two survivors who had hidden from Bosnian Serb forces in the forests [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] Dizdarevic met two survivors who had hidden from Bosnian Serb forces in the forests [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] After a night of rain, the trail was slick with mud. As the group traversed the mountain of Udrc in the Dinaric Alps, Dizdarevic explained, through shallow breaths, that the muddy conditions were slowing them down. It was there, on the mountain, that he met two survivors of the genocide - men who had hidden in the forests from Bosnian Serb forces in the summer of 1995. Hasan Hasanovic and Mevludin Hrnjic, both young men at the time, spent 80 days in hiding. Hasanovic was just 19 and lost his father and twin brother in the killings. Years later, they were found in mass graves. Hrnjic, then 24, lost his father and four of his brothers. He was the only male in his family to emerge from the woods to safety and to his mother. He later told his story in a book he authored, Witness to the Srebrenica Genocide. 'That was a very emotional moment for me,' Dizdarevic said, about walking with the two survivors where they had run for their lives three decades earlier. As they walked together, he tried to put himself in their shoes, but Dizdarevic was sure it was just a glimpse of the hardships they went through. 'Look, we have all [the] logistical support. There are people from the Red Cross helping us to get up the mountain [with ropes],' he said. It's already 'very, very hard', without having to worry about being killed, or having no food or shelter, he added. The marchers walked mostly in silence, their heads bowed. Then, Dizdarevic encountered his most difficult moment of the day: walking through the so-called 'death valley' in Kamenica, where smaller mass graves had been found along the Drina River basin. 'You cannot comprehend how massive this was and what destruction [it caused] not only for the people killed, but also for their families,' he reflected. The gravesites there were found near the homes of Bosniaks, in their yards or in nearby meadows. Now, memorial plaques honour the Srebrenica victims at several of the sepulchres. At the end of the second day, Dizdarevic and his group once again camped at a genocide survivor's home, this time in the village of Pubode. People pray among the gravestones of Srebrenica victims [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] People pray among the gravestones of Srebrenica victims [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] On the third and final day, Dizdarevic and most of those around him could not contain their emotions as they reached Potocari, the site of the memorial to Srebrenica victims. In the grassy valley dotted with row upon row of white marble tombstones, are the remnants of the gray slab concrete buildings where the UN Dutch battalion had been stationed to protect Bosniaks during the war. But in July 1995, the battalion was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces, leading to the bloodshed that ensued. Reaching the site where thousands were brutally killed brought 'overwhelming sadness' to Dizdarevic. 'It was very emotional,' he said. But Dizdarevic was also awash with relief – not only from the physical toll of the march being over, but also from the emotional weight of having walked in the footsteps of victims who never made it to safety. 'It was very important for every one of us to finish this march,' he said. 'This remembrance should lead to a prevention of potential future genocide.' As he and his companions set up one final camp in Potocari, before the memorial event there the next day on the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, Dizdarevic pondered what justice for its victims looks like. 'The search for justice ... is a very difficult process ... Even more difficult is that the Serbian society ... [is] very in favour of this genocide,' he said. 'I am afraid that Serbian society – they did not undergo this catharsis [of] saying, 'Yes, we did this and we are guilty, sorry.' [On the] contrary, they are very proud of it ... or they deny it.' In the years since, the International Court of Justice and courts in the Balkans have sentenced almost 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officials collectively to more than 700 years in prison for the genocide. But many of the accused remain unpunished, and genocide denial is rampant, especially among political leaders in Serbia and the Serb-majority entity of Republika Srpska. Milorad Dodik, the entity's current leader, whose image appears on billboards flashing the three-finger salute, a symbol of Serb nationalism, has dismissed the Srebrenica genocide as a 'fabricated myth'. The group arrived in Potocari a day before the 30th anniversary event [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] Still, Dizdarevic has held on to hope, a feeling renewed during the march as he watched countless young people take part, many of them born after the Bosnian war. 'What is, for me, very important, [is] that the young men and women who participate in this march understand ... they should play an active role in the prevention of future genocide by creating a positive environment in their societies,' he said. On July 11, the day after the march ended, Dizdarevic and his group joined thousands in Potocari to mark the sombre anniversary, where the remains of seven newly identified victims were laid to rest. There, they stood in solemn silence as the coffins were lowered into freshly dug graves, soon to be marked with new marble headstones, joining the more than 6,000 others already laid to rest. Reporting for this article was made possible by the NGO Islamic Relief. A woman sits next to the gravestone of a relative at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] A woman sits next to the gravestone of a relative at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera]
