PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo said on Saturday that a participating soldier from North Macedonia had died.

The Kosovo Force mission said the serviceman died in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, on Friday in circumstances unrelated to the fighting. A KFOR statement did not give the cause of death or any personal details.

“NATO mourns the loss of a soldier and we are here to support his friends. His fellow soldiers, sailors and airmen continue their courageous UN mandated mission,” the statement read.

North Macedonia joined NATO in 2020. The KFOR mission includes some 4,000 soldiers from 28 countries.

NATO troops have been present in Kosovo since 1999 after a bloody war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian separatists ended in a 78-day NATO air campaign.

Kosovo was a Serbian province until it declared independence in 2008. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence and their relations remain strained.