4,500 pieces of UXO destroyed in the last three months

The Federal Civil Protection Administration destroyed about 4,500 pieces of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the last three months, Sead Vrana, Head of the UXO Removal Department of the FUCZ, confirmed to the BH News Agency Patria.

- Not all of it was a consequence of the water surge that brought mines, but also residual UXO in the homes of citizens in the flooded areas – said Vrana, adding that FUCZ teams were in the field daily.

- We would sometimes find 40 to 50 pieces of unexploded ordnance in one day, and between 1,500 and 2,000 pieces of UXO were destroyed after the floods – Vrana states.

FUCZ Director Fahrudin Solak told Patria that there are now 100,000 square meters of suspicious areas, considering the displacement of UXO from marked minefields during the May floods.

- After the rivers receded, we found large quantities of UXO on the riverbanks. Bombs, tank and howitzer shells, and the water entered the minefields – Solak states.

He pointed out that during the days when floods hit Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bosna River could have carried mines from Maglaj all the way to Orašje.

- At the end of August, FUCZ members, along with their Czech deminer colleagues, will work on clearing the Sava River basin. In any case, suspicious areas will be cleared, and colleagues from BH MAC are on the ground marking and designating the terrain – Solak states.