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Following a terrorist attack Sunday that killed four people near Kosovo’s border with Serbia, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu canceled her address at Yale.

Osmani-Sadriu was due to arrive on campus on Monday to give a speech at the Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall about the future of the Republic of Kosovo and stability in Eastern Europe. The address was organized by Timothy Dwight College as part of its Chubb Fellowship visiting lecture series and co-sponsored by the Yale Albanian Students Society.

“We were very excited about the opportunity to host President Osmani so are disappointed,” Timothy Dwight Head of College Mary Lui wrote in an email to the News. “But also understand that the safety and well-being of Kosovo is of utmost importance.”

The conflict Sunday morning began with an ambush near Kosovo’s northern border with Serbia that killed one Kosovar police officer and injured another.

The incident led to an hours-long standoff between gunmen and police in a nearby monastery, leaving three attackers dead.

“The international community must condemn these violent, orchestrated attacks against the Kosovo Police in the strongest terms,” Edward Wittenstein, executive director of international security studies at the Jackson School of Global Affairs explained. “The [European Union] Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, and the NATO Kosovo Force, should provide the support necessary to help ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable and brought to justice.”

Kosovan student Anisë Murseli ’25 told the News that she was upset and disappointed at the attack, viewing it as the latest in a series of regional conflicts that have plagued the Balkans for decades.

Murseli, a research fellow at the University’s European Studies Council, noted to the News that the EU and the United States were not doing enough to remedy the issue at hand.

“I believe that until Serbia stops weaponizing religion to sustain its ethno-nationalistic myths, and until the specter of the 90s genocidal aspirations stops haunting the Serbian political elites, stability in Kosovo and the broader Balkan region will remain elusive,” she wrote in an email to the News.

Osmani-Sadriu, who was in the United States for the 78th session of the United Nations Assembly when the attack took place, also alleged that the attacks were carried out by “Serbian criminal gangs” in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Shtile Shuaipaj ’25, president of the Yale Albanian Student Society, led efforts to organize the talk. Shuaipaj told the News that she “would have introduced the president before her speech,” along with Lui and another member of the Albanian Student Society, if the event had occurred.

Bianka Meçaj, vice president of the Yale Albanian Student Society, told the News that the Society was working directly with Osmani-Sadriu’s team to plan the president’s visit to Yale.

Shuaipaj and Meçaj both expressed their condolences to the [resident, her staff and the people of Kosovo.

In her email to Timothy Dwight College announcing the talk’s cancellation, Lui wrote that she will “continue to be in touch with the presidential staff to work out the possibility of rescheduling [Osmani-Sadriu’s] visit to campus in the future.”

Lui told the News that Osmani-Sadriu’s office expressed “disappointment” at the cancellation but hoped that Osmani-Sadriu will soon travel to New Haven. 

Alexander Medel ’27, one of the talk’s registered attendees, said that his interest in international affairs and political science had drawn him to the event, but he understood that Osmani-Sadriu’s priorities were with her country.

“I was really looking forward to attending the event, hearing the president speak, and getting her unique perspective on Eastern European politics,” Medel wrote. “However, her country needs her the most right now for leadership and guidance. I wish her and the Kosovan people all my best as they find the emotional strength to navigate this distressing and saddening act of terror.”

Kosovo is located in southeast Europe on the Balkan Peninsula.