The overriding theme of the year has been cooperation. EUFOR works tirelessly to maintain excellent communication and cooperation with our partners, building strong and effective relationships to enable all parties to achieve their mutual goals and for the maintenance of the safe and secure environment. Whether that be working with the EU Delegation in support of the EU’s ‘Comprehensive Approach’ for BiH; continuing our superb relationship with the Armed Forces of BiH (AFBiH) through supporting combined and collective training and conducting exercises with AFBiH and Law Enforcement Agencies; as well as working with BiH government ministries and agencies in the security sector and in support of demining activities.
Our relationships with our partners in the International Community and with civilian organisations working in BiH are often key to enabling much of the good work we support in BiH. Please check out the ‘EUFOR News’ area of the website to see many engagements conducted with Heads of State, Ambassadors and other distinguished individuals and organisations.
December 2019 saw the 15th Anniversary of the start of the EUFOR Althea mission in BiH. The occasion was marked with a Gala Event held at the Hall of the Armed Forces of BiH in Sarajevo. The honoured guests included then Minister of Defence, Marina Pendeš, Chief of the Joint Staff AFBiH, Lieutenant General Senad Mašović, High Representative for BiH, Ambassador Valentin Inzko, the Head of the EU Delegation and EU Special Representative, Ambassador Johann Sattler and many ambassadors and dignitaries.
In another year of peace and security, EUFOR held its annual Exercise Quick Response in October. The exercise saw ‘over the horizon’ reserve troops from Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, the United Kingdom and KFOR join their comrades in EUFOR’s Multinational Battalion to conduct exercises with the Armed Forces of BiH and Law Enforcement Agencies, which this year included elements from the Republika Srpska.
In January a team of Turkish soldiers of the Multinational Battalion were conducting a routine patrol near Tomislavgrad, when the weather turned bad with heavy snowfall. They encountered a car stuck in the snow containing a family which included a pregnant woman. The soldiers worked in freezing conditions for 45 minutes to free the car from the snow and allow them to continue their journey.
A flag-raising ceremony was held at Camp Butmir in March to mark the occasion of Portugal re-joining EUFOR, bringing the total of troop contributing countries to 20, with 15 countries from the EU and 5 non-EU countries.
A staple of EUFOR’s annual activity is training, whether that be internally, ensuring our troops are ready to perform their duties whenever they are called on, or with external partners such as AFBiH, Law Enforcement Agencies are civil organisations. The wide range of training activities conducted during 2019 has included: a week of training with the AFBiH 4th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Battalion in joint peace support operations techniques, in line with the ‘Training and Cooperation Plan 2019’; training for members of the Military Police of the AFBiH preparing to deploy to Afghanistan; mine disposal training for the Multinational Battalion; heliboarding drills in riot gear and live firing on the rifle ranges for the Multinational Battalion; emergency rescue training with Mountain Rescue Service Trebević; a mine training exercise on Mount Igman simulating a casualty sustained by a land mine, incorporating an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team and helicopter evacuation; an exercise with the Civil Protection Agency Novi Grad Sarajevo, Gorska Služba Spašavanja and others, simulating an explosion and casualty scenarios; helicopter winching exercises with the Federal Administration of Civil Protection covering three rescue scenarios: a climber stuck on a cliff, a hiker with a broken leg and a person injured in a minefield.
Our relationships with our partners in the International Community and with civilian organisations working in BiH are often key to enabling much of the good work we support in BiH. Please check out the ‘EUFOR News’ area of the website to see many engagements conducted with Heads of State, Ambassadors and other distinguished individuals and organisations.
EUFOR would like to extend a very big ‘Thank You’ to all who have been involved over the last year and for playing your part in continuing to build a successful future for BiH in 2020.
