The victims of the two terrorist attacks in Belgium in 2016 will be remembered at a memorial service.Image: REUTERS
Mar 22, 2026, 4:02 p.mMar 22, 2026, 4:02 p.m
Ten years after the Islamist terrorist attacks on March 22, 2016, the numerous victims were remembered at commemorations in Belgium. At Brussels airport, employees and rescue workers gathered in a human chain early in the morning before a commemorative plaque was unveiled at a ceremony with Belgian King Philippe and Prime Minister Bart De Wever in the departure lounge. A little later there was also a memorial service with the king and De Wever in the Maelbeek subway station in the European Quarter.
The operation at the Maelbeek metro station.Image: EPA
During the attacks, three suicide bombers from the terrorist organization so-called “Islamic State” (IS) detonated bombs at Brussels’ Zaventem airport and in the subway station. They killed 32 people and injured 340. Due to additional victims due to illness or suicide, the official number of deaths is now given as 36.
At the ceremonies, de Wever thanked the emergency services who were active at the time and called on them not to lose faith in the good. “Terrorists tried to divide us and paralyze us with fear,” he explained. “But ten years later, we see how people continue to stand up for each other and choose humanity and dignity – often through small, quiet gestures.”
Shattered windows at Brussels Airport.Image: EPA AP POOL
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social networks: “Today we think of the victims and their relatives, who still bear a loss that time cannot heal.” As in 2016, we stand united and remain determined to protect our shared values.
King Philippe and Prime Minister Bart De Wever at the memorial service for the victims on March 22, 2016.Image: keystone
Mammoth process ends in 2023
The criminal investigation into the attacks has now been completed. After a mammoth trial in 2023, long prison sentences were imposed on suspected masterminds and supporters of the suicide bombers.
The attacks in the Belgian capital ten years ago were part of a series of Islamist terrorism. In November 2015, terrorists killed 130 people and injured 350 in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris. In December 2016, an Islamist terrorist hijacked a truck and drove it into the Christmas market at the Berlin Memorial Church. This attack claimed 13 victims, with one person dying as a result years later.
Some victims have their pensions reduced
As a survivor of a terrorist attack, Walter Benjamin is entitled to monthly compensation, but this has now been reduced. Opposite The Guardian tells Benjamin that he is still suffering ten years later. Even though he’s physically fine now (he lost one leg and had over a dozen operations to save his other), the images of the attack still haunt him. Benjamin was standing just three meters from one of the assassins when the bomb exploded.
Last July he was informed that he had received excessive state compensation payments: his monthly pension had been reduced by 70 percent. “It was a shock,” he says. «I have never hidden anything that I received. And if I die, my daughter’s debts will remain. That is not right.”
Due to his disability, he has additional costs such as more expensive plane tickets and taxi rides to cope with life with a prosthesis. Psychological support and additional help are also provided if he is temporarily unable to walk due to the injuries caused by the prosthesis.
Another survivor also says that her lifelong pension of 131 francs per month was completely canceled and she had to reimburse the state over 1,500 francs.
A spokesman for the Belgian Federal Pension Authority told The Guardian that any reductions in benefits would only apply to future pension payments and would never be made against an individual or their dependents.
(cmu, sda/dpa)