The most dramatic was a Croatian Army offensive in the Krajina region in August 1995, which led hundreds of thousands of Bosnian and Croatian Serbs to flee to Serbia where most of them are still in refuge. In August 1995, NATO launched an air strike and an artillery attack on the Serb forces around Sarajevo that led to the end of the Serb siege. However, by the time the Dayton Accord was signed, much of Bosnia's housing, infrastructure and industries had been destroyed and the physical and emotional damage inflicted upon Bosnian civilians was immense. The sheer devastation of communities, the lack of a working government, and continuing ethnic strife stood as a barrier to refugee repatriation, in spite of the deployment of NATO peacekeeping forces whose mission was to keep the warring sides separated. As a massive international reconstruction effort got underway, refugee returns gradually increased and Bosnia's battered economy began to recover.
Reconstruction remains the central mission of international aid agencies in Bosnia.
The IRC established its presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992, quickly becoming the largest NGO to operate there. It was the first relief organization to organize an airlift of medicines, food and other humanitarian supplies into Sarajevo, saving lives and improving the quality of life for Sarajevo's besieged residents. The IRC also implemented a unique agriculture project in cities hosting displaced populations, that enabled communities to grow vegetable gardens in every possible cultivable apace. In Sarajevo, IRC staff built a major water filtration system and repaired boilers across the city, providing heat to most of Sarajevo's residents. Subsequent to the peace accords in 1995, the IRC expanded programs to include extensive shelter and infrastructure projects, including repair and rehabilitation of private residences, schools, factories, hospitals, clinics, roads, water, gas and electrical systems essential to the lives of the country's residents.