On Monday 2nd December 2024, Belgium was found guilty of crimes against humanity for the forced removal of 5 mix-raced children from their mothers in colonial Congo.

The ruling, by the Brussels Court of Appeal, came after years of legal wrangling by these women and a 2021 ruling by a lower court which rejected the women’s complaint.

The 5 five women were among an estimated 5,000 to 20,000 mixed race children stolen from their Congolese mothers in the former Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The children were taken to distant Catholic missions and sometimes shipped to Belgium.

In 2019, then Belgium prime minister, Charles Michel, apologised for the kidnapping of mixed race or metis children.

Two years previously, the Catholic church had apologised for its role in the scandal.