NATO: Ongoing tensions in northern Kosovo could reignite violence

Ongoing ethnic tensions in northern Kosovo could spark a repeat of the violence seen in the area last year, when four people were killed in gunfire and NATO peacekeepers were injured in clashes, a senior military alliance official warned on Saturday, Reuters reported.

Kosovo is predominantly ethnic Albanian, but some 50,000 Serbs in the north of the country reject Pristina's government and consider Belgrade their capital. Kosovo, a former Serbian province, declared independence in 2008, a decade after a guerrilla uprising.

US Navy Admiral Stuart Munsch, commander of Allied Command Naples, which oversees NATO peacekeeping forces in Kosovo, said the Alliance remained concerned about the risk of a recurrence of violence in the restive north.

“Heated political rhetoric may inspire some non-governmental forces to commit acts of violence similar to what happened last year. I wouldn't say there's definitely a conflict brewing, I think there's an ongoing risk,” he said, referring to the lack of progress in EU-brokered talks between the Kosovo government and Serbia.

In September 2023, a policeman and three other armed men were killed when a group of heavily armed intruders entered Serbia and attacked police in the village of Banjska.

Four months earlier, more than 90 soldiers were injured when Serbian protesters attacked NATO peacekeepers. Kosovo accused Serbia of involvement in the Banjska attack, but Belgrade rejected the accusations. The United States and the European Union, Kosovo's leading global allies, have criticized the Pristina government for unilateral actions in the north of the country that could spark ethnic violence and endanger the lives of some 4,000 NATO troops on duty there. Kosovo rejects such criticism and the issue has strained Pristina's relations with its Western backers.

As part of the EU-brokered dialogue, Kosovo and Serbia have been negotiating to normalize their relations for more than a decade, but little progress has been made.