"The Defence Ministry will make every effort to prevent unfortunate incidents in the Croatian Army," Defence Minister, Mario Banozic, said on Tuesday, after five servicemen had committed suicide off duty in less than a month.

“Because of unfortunate incidents that occurred in the Croatian Army, we will invest all our efforts in the further development of programs to prevent such incidents,” the minister said, expressing his deep regret over the deaths of the servicemen.

He did not discuss the circumstances of the deaths.

“Profoundly shaken by the unfortunate incidents that happened recently, I express my deepest condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the Croatian soldiers who passed away. The loss of any member of the Croatian Army is a great loss to the system because it is they who contribute to the development of our Armed Forces,” Banozic said in a press release carried by state agency Hina.

The deaths, individually reported via press releases by the ministry since June, were not commented on until Tuesday, a day after they said that a female soldier was found dead. No other details of the deaths have been released, other than that she had hailed from the eastern Vukovar-Srijem County.

Banozic said that these incidents “were in no way connected with the situation in the Armed Forces,” and that the Defence Ministry and the Army would do all in their power to ensure that there were as few such incidents as possible.

The Ministry said that servicemen and servicewomen could contact psychologists in their units at all times for counseling.