On a faithful day, Uzo, a Nigerian living in Antwerp Belgium, had taken off to travel to Italy through the Zaventem Airport Brussels. It was not up to one hour after he left with the train, it was all over the airwaves that there had been a terrorist attack in the Brussels International airport and in a metro station in Maalenbeek, also in the Brussels area.
One can imagine the panic that gripped the friends and family of Uzo with this news. So it was undescribable joy that we saw him come back to Antwerp with slight injuries and dust all over him. The young man was highly shaken, and till today the truama of that experience still shakes him terribly. The stories he told that day was extremely frightening and left all gathered and listening in dire stress.
Victims of Brussel’s deadliest terrorist attack were remembered on Wednesday morning at the seventh commemoration of the event.
On 22 March 2016, 32 people were killed and hundreds injured after three suicide bombers self-detonated at Maelbeek metro station and Zaventem airport.
A minute’s silence was held at each location at the exact time the explosions took place.
This year, not 16, but 17 names were called out at the airport. The name of Shanti De Corte was added – the young woman who was euthanised last year as a result of her declining mental health after the attack.
Victim Support Europe was formed as a result of this horrible attack to look into the issues concerning the victims affected centrally or peripherially by this attack, with Levent Altan, as Executive Director.
Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander de Croo and EU Parliament president Roberta Metsola were present at the ceremony.
As a result of this attack also, on 22 December 2022, ten people went on trial over the attacks. The case is expected to last until June, attempting to bring those having orchestrated the March 2016 bombings to justice, and is predicted to cost €35.3 million, making it the most expensive trial in Belgian history.
Six of the men were also found guilty of participating in the 2015 November Paris attacks. The first few months of the trial were overshadowed by the men complaining about how they were treated and even walking out of the hearings, causing several delays.
