2001 insurgency in Macedonia

The 2001 insurgency in Macedonia was an armed conflict which began when the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) insurgent group, formed from veterans of the Kosovo War and Insurgency in the Preševo Valley, attacked Macedonian security forces at the end of January 2001, and ended with the Ohrid Agreement, signed on 13 August of that same year. There were also claims that the NLA ultimately wished to see Albanian-majority areas secede from the country, though high-ranking members of the group have denied this. The conflict lasted throughout most of the year, although overall casualties remained limited to several dozen individuals on either side, according to sources from both sides of the conflict. With it, the Yugoslav Wars had reached the Republic of Macedonia which had achieved peaceful independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

2001 insurgency in Macedonia
Part of the Yugoslav Wars
Clockwise from top left: Macedonian T-55 tank and crew in Aračinovo; Monument of the Defenders of Macedonia; Macedonian police border patrol near Raduša; A detachment of the Macedonian Special Police Unit for Fast Interventions near Kumanovo, 2001
Date22 January – 13 August 2001
(6 months, 3 weeks and 1 day)
Location
Polog and Kumanovo regions of Macedonia
Result See aftermath
Belligerents
National Liberation Army
Albanian National Army
Republic of Macedonia
Commanders and leaders
Ali Ahmeti
Gëzim Ostreni
Xhezair Shaqiri
Avdil Jakupi
Jakup Asipi
Jetullah Qarri
Hajrulla Misini
Boris Trajkovski
Pande Petrovski
Ljubčo Georgievski
Jovan Andrevski
Ljube Boškoski
Dosta Dimovska
Vlado Bučkovski
Ljuben Paunovski
Strength
2,000–3,000 (beginning of the war)
6,000 – 7,000 militants
Unknown
20,000 soldiers and policemen
60 T-55 tanks
4 Su-25 aircraft
4 Mi-24
Casualties and losses
64–105 militants killed 63–77 soldiers and policemen killed
1 tank and 2 APCs captured
1 tank and 1 APC destroyed
1 Mi-17 crashed

90 civilians killed 150–250 total dead and 1,000 total casualties
70–250 killed in fighting
Other:
140,000 people displaced
One UK soldier killed

Two EU monitors killed
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