Five Congolese women are suing the Belgian State for crimes against humanity. These women were born to white fathers and black mothers in the Belgian colony of the Congo in the 1940s. The Belgian army forcibly withdrew these little girls at the age of two, three, or four, from their maternal family, and then they were placed and raised by Christian sisters, in a religious institution located sometimes hundreds of kilometers from their homes.
From the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1960, not only did their situation not improve but also they again felt alone. Because the Christian sisters of the church, who were the only guardians and supporters, were also returning to Belgium. They endured bitter turmoil, including sexual harassment and rape by fighters.
Simon Ngalula, a Belgian plaintiff, said to Euro News: “After being stripped, the soldiers showed us how children are born.” Prime Minister Charles Michel, in 2019, issued a formal apology to the child victims who are detached from their families under the order of the Belgian authorities in Congo.
Mr. Marchand, the lawyer for these five women, said: “abducting children was a well-organized plan implemented by the Belgian government; it was a definitely racist and hateful policy. According to him, a single formal apology is not enough for the victims of these crimes against humanity. According to the lawyer for these Congolese women, these children were taken from their homes by the Belgian authorities at the time in cooperation with the Catholic Church and were placed in religious institutions and boarding schools.
These five women: Léa Tavares Mujinga, Monique Bintu Bingi, Noelle Verbeken, Simone Ngalula and Marie-José Loshi, were all born to a Congolese mother and a white Belgian father.
These five Congolese women are a very small part of the 15,000 mixed-race children who suffered the same fate as the complainants. They were by force separated from their maternal families during colonization. According to available legal documents, the Belgian state at the time threatened their families that they would be punished if they did not abandon their children. However, there is evidence that the then-Belgian state and the Catholic Church abandoned this group of children after the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo, some of whom were sexually abused by paramilitary fighters.
Now, after years, these victims filing a complaint against the Belgian State in the civil court of Belgium, seek to make known the Belgian authorities who governed between the years 1908 and 1960 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), whose acts resulted in the separation of thousands of mixed-race children from their families and their placement in religious institutions under the guardianship of the Belgian State.
All these women are calling on Belgian justice financial compensation; a provisional sum of 50,000 euros and the appointment of an expert to assess their non-pecuniary damage. Through this complaint, they hope to be able to reveal the facts of the colonial period and the violence they suffered when they were little girls and adolescents.