Nearly 2,000 people attended the funeral Tuesday of 19 people who died in floods and landslides in Bosnia and Herzegovina earlier this month.
They were buried in a ceremony in the municipality of Jablanica in southern Bosnia. The mourners stood behind a string of imams and other religious leaders, carrying 19 coffins wrapped in green cloth, according to Islamic tradition.
The bodies of the dead were then carried to the graves and covered with soil.
All 19 victims were from Donja Jablanica, a village in Jablanica, where the Grand Mufti of Bosnia’s Islamic Community, Husein Kavazovic, led the funeral.
“Words are not needed,” Kavazovic said, addressing participants near the Jablanica mosque. “Although the pain is deep and unbearable, we are aware that God decides for our lives. We are mortal”.
All the victims died on the night of October 4 when torrential rains caused severe flooding and landslides. The storm brought piles of rocks, mud and water to the village, destroying many homes.
In northern Herzegovina and central Bosnia, the amount of rain took people by surprise, and entire areas were cut off after heavy flooding destroyed roads and bridges.
In addition to 19 people dead in Donja Jablanica, four people died in Konjica and three others died in the Fojnica area. One person is still missing.
Bosnian government officials said the collapse of a quarry was responsible for the large number of casualties in Donja Jablanica.
Rescuers from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro helped search for missing people in flooded areas over the past week, while engineering units assisted in other recovery efforts.
Kosovo’s government announced last week that it would 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 housing, electric generators, water pumps and other necessary equipment for displaced people, Bosnia’s Security Ministry said on October 14.
Floods and landslides destroyed at least 230 buildings in Jablanica, and the estimated damage is around 25.6 million euros.
