MAGLAJ, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) – Five months after the Sahman family lost nearly everything they owned in massive floods, they have received almost no help from Bosnian authorities – just two beds from their municipality for their ruined home.
They have seen nothing of the 800 million euros ($1 billion) that international donors pledged to help Bosnia recover from the country’s worst floods in 120 years, an event so calamitous that it displaced 90,000 people from their homes and left 43,000 homes in need of repair.
Bosnia’s foreign minister, Zlatko Lagumdzija, says the money has not yet reached government accounts.
“Payment – zero. This is how much money we received until now from the donors’ money onto the accounts of institutions of Bosnia,” Lagumdzija told a recent press conference in Sarajevo.
U.S. officials say that Bosnian officials have failed to present credible plans for spending it.