Taken from their mothers in colonial Belgium, mixed-race women sue for compensation

As colonial symbols come under scrutiny in Belgium, five mixed-race women have sued the Belgian state for "crimes against humanity". Now over 70 years old, these women were born in what was then Belgian Congo, the present-day DRC. The offspring of Congolese mothers and European fathers, they were abducted from their mothers to be placed in religious institutions and subject to the supervision of the state. These children were seen as a threat by the Belgian state, which feared that they would rise up against the colonial order. Our Brussels correspondents report.

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