An armed conflict began in the Republic of Macedonia in 2001 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 Macedonia, which had achieved peaceful independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
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