Downloading a file from a url in react

I'm trying to learn reactJS and as a part of it I`m trying to let my users images from a url of a photo (using flicker API)

I browsed here for a solution and the closest i got is here: Download Image with url React

unfortunately using the <a href={url} download> to initiate the download when the button is pressed does not work. is there a way to make my browser initiate the download? does it not work because flicker api does not support those kind of features?