War-Torn And Impoverished, Bosnia Faces Rebuild Once Again After Floods

"Mitra Colic stands in the shell of her home, anguished by the worst flooding in the Balkans in 150 years. "I have moments when I cry and think: What next? Can I go on like this?" she says.

Colic, a 71-year-old retired cleaner, moved to the northern Bosnian town of Modrica during the Yugoslav war from her home near Vukovar, a city in Croatia that endured one of the longest and bloodiest sieges in that conflict. Now she again faces the prospect of rebuilding her life after the floods that swept across the city in a matter of hours, running three and a half metres (11ft) deep in places and making thousands homeless.

"I'm ill, my body is reacting to this," said Colic from the sodden concrete space that was once her front room. Outside in the sun, relatives scrubbed kitchen appliances in the vain hope they might work again."

Andrew MacDowall reports for the Guardian May 25, 2014.