One of the longest sieges in the history of modern warfare began on this day

(Patria) - The siege of Sarajevo began with the capture of the International Airport by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) on the night of April 4-5, 1992, and ended on February 29, 1996.

It was an almost four-year blockade of the capital, called the "Siege of Sarajevo", lasting 1,425 days, one of the longest in the history of modern warfare, writes Historija.ba.

After the "Berlin Airlift", this was the "longest" airlift in the history of world aviation.

During its "duration", more than ten thousand aircraft landed and took off from the airport, delivering humanitarian aid, UN forces, and evacuating wounded civilians for treatment.

The airlift itself, according to UNHCR data, was not sufficient to deliver food to the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, if there was any security to speak of, it proved to be the safest.

While convoys stood still, halted by disagreements with commanders on the ground, conflicts, or weather conditions, an average of 20-25 planes landed at Sarajevo airport daily, meaning ten tons of food per flight. Ninety percent of aid to Sarajevo arrived by air.

During the siege, an average of 329 shells fell on Sarajevo daily, and this city also holds a specific record. Namely, it is a record of 3,777 shells fired at Sarajevo in one day.

This happened on July 22, 1993. The shells caused enormous damage, with civilian, cultural, and religious objects suffering the most.

People were killed, civilian, cultural, and religious objects were destroyed, even hospitals. 120 mortars and 250 JNA tanks were stationed in the hills around Sarajevo, which later fell into the hands of the Army of Republika Srpska. Their goal was to starve and demoralize the population in the cruelest ways.

A terrible example is the massacre at the open market Markale, when in February 1994, shells fired from Chetnik positions on Špicasta stijena hit a crowd of people, taking the lives of 68 citizens of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The first civilian victims of the siege of Sarajevo were Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić. They were killed on April 5 at the Varbanja bridge, not far from the building of the then Assembly of BiH, in front of which peace demonstrations were taking place, where Sarajevo citizens were demanding that the aggressor forces remove barricades and withdraw.

During the siege of Sarajevo, 11,541 people were killed, including 1,601 children, and around 50,000 people were lightly and seriously wounded.