On 30 July 1993, a mortar shell fired by the #Serb troops hit a Sarajevo neighbourhood, injuring five-year-old Irma Hadžimuratović and killing several others, including her mother.

#OperationIrma

PhotoGabriel Bouys

Sarajevo's overstretched Koševo hospital was unable to provide adequate treatment for the injuries Irma received to her spine, head and abdomen. She developed bacterial meningitis as a result.

#SarajevoUnderSiege

Edib Jaganjac, the surgeon treating Irma, tried unsuccessfully to have her evacuated on a #UN relief flight. He then resorted to distributing her photograph among foreign journalists in #Sarajevo.

PhotoRoger M. Richards

Several picked up Irma's story, giving it widespread coverage in the international press. On 8 August, BBC news led with coverage of Irma. On 9 August, British PM John Major personally intervened, dispatching an RAF Hercules to airlift Irma to London's Great Ormond St. Hospital.

“If it is not stopped, the killing will be more and more,” her father Ramiz told at a brief news conference, speaking through an interpreter.

#WeRemember

In the following days and months dozens more Bosnians were evacuated under a program the UK media dubbed "Operation Irma". During the week beginning on 9 August, 41 people were taken out of Sarajevo. It was reported later that hundreds were eventually evacuated under the program.

Other countries, including Sweden and Ireland, organized further airlifts, and the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, and Poland also offered hospital beds.

#OperationIrma

Irma underwent a total of 12 operations and battled successfully against bacterial meningitis, brought on by her severe wounds, but remained on a ventilator to help her breathing. She suffered complications that prevented her from eating and had to be fed intravenously.

#Siege

She died of septicaemia in Great Ormond Street on 1 April 1995, aged seven, following twenty months in intensive care. The coroner at her inquest called her "a victim of war".

#WarCrimes

Irma, who was accompanied to London by her father Ramiz and younger sister Medina, learned English at the hospital school and made several visits to the countryside in a specially adapted wheelchair.

#SniperAlley

“Irma was a warm and affectionate child who won the hearts of everyone,” said Dr. Quen Mok, who treated her. “Her courage in dealing with her injuries was an inspiration to us all.”

Irma Hadzimuratovic was only 7 old.

PhotoUliano Lucas

*7 years old*