Brussels Remembers:
Ten Years of Grief,
Resilience, and the Fight
That Must Never End
On March 22, 2016, coordinated ISIS bombings at Brussels Airport and the Maelbeek metro station killed 32 civilians and injured more than 300. Ten years on, we pay tribute — in French and in English — to every victim, every family, and every first responder who ran toward the smoke.
The Morning That Changed Brussels Forever
At 07:58 on a Tuesday morning, the departure hall of Brussels Airport fell silent after a double detonation — two suicide bombers, 37 seconds apart, tearing through the check-in counters where families were preparing to fly, business travellers were queuing, and airport workers were beginning another ordinary shift. Seventy-three minutes later, at 09:11, as rescue teams were still working at the airport, a third bomber detonated his device on a metro train departing Maelbeek station — yards from the headquarters of European institutions, in the beating heart of the EU.
ISIS claimed responsibility within hours through its Amaq news agency, describing the attacks as retaliation against the “crusader coalition.” In those two moments — airport and metro, 07:58 and 09:11 — 32 civilians from multiple nationalities were killed, and more than 300 people were injured. Many of the survivors carry physical and psychological wounds that have never fully healed.
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07:58 — Brussels Airport, Zaventem
Departure Hall — Double Suicide BombingTwo suicide bombers detonated explosives 37 seconds apart near check-in counters. TATP-based devices packed with nails and screws to maximize casualties. Ibrahim El Bakraoui was one of the bombers. A third attacker (Najim Laachraoui) fled — his unexploded device was later found. He was killed in a subsequent police raid.
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09:11 — Maelbeek / Maalbeek Metro Station
European Quarter — Metro Train BombingKhalid El Bakraoui detonated a device aboard a metro train departing Maelbeek station, close to EU institutions. The station, located in the heart of Brussels’ European quarter, was packed with morning commuters — among them EU officials, diplomats, and workers from dozens of nations.
The attacks were linked to the same jihadist network behind the November 2015 Paris attacks. The perpetrators were Belgian nationals or residents with ties to radical Islamist networks — some having fought in Syria and Iraq with ISIS. Belgium’s deadliest peacetime incident sent shockwaves across the continent, exposing deep vulnerabilities in European intelligence cooperation and raising urgent questions about radicalization on European soil.
Belgium and the EU Remember: Ceremony, Silence, and Survivor Testimonies
On March 22, 2026, Belgium and the European Union marked the tenth anniversary of the attacks with a day of official ceremonies, tributes, and reflection. King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, Prime Minister Bart De Wever, victims’ families, and survivors gathered at the two sites of the attacks — Brussels Airport and Maelbeek metro station — beginning at 8:00 AM with moments of silence and survivor testimonies that brought the human reality of that Tuesday morning back into focus with unsparing clarity.
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Official Ceremonies — Airport & Maelbeek (8:00 AM)King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and Prime Minister Bart De Wever attended commemorations at both attack sites. Moments of silence observed. Survivor testimonies delivered. Victims’ families present.
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Tribute Concert — Grand-Place, City HallThe City of Brussels organized a concert at City Hall on the Grand-Place, featuring the Flagey Academy Children’s Choir — honoring victims, families, and acts of courage and solidarity across a decade of recovery.
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“Faces of Pain” Exhibition — Belgian Federal ParliamentA photo exhibition titled Gezichten op pijn (“Faces of Pain”) was organized at the Belgian Federal Parliament by victims’ group Life4Brussels — giving human form to what statistics alone cannot convey.
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EU-Level Tribute — European Commission StatementEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen honored the victims and noted strengthened European cooperation against terrorism over the past decade — in the context of the European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism, observed on March 11.
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House of Representatives Event — Memory & Democratic ResilienceThe Brussels International Centre for Research hosted a commemorative event at the House of Representatives, focused on memory, solidarity, and the democratic resilience that terrorism seeks to destroy.
Ten Years Later: Scars That Have Not Healed, Battles That Continue
For the survivors of March 22, the anniversary is not only a moment of remembrance. It is also, for many, a reminder of ongoing struggles that stretch far beyond the wounds of that morning. Survivors have highlighted persistent physical and mental health challenges, delayed or contested compensation, and frustrations with support systems that promised more than they delivered.
Some have reported battles for full insurance payouts; others have faced pension cuts despite life-changing injuries sustained in the service of nothing more than going to work or catching a train. Victims’ associations, while acknowledging progress in counterterrorism over the past decade, have emphasized that the scars remain — and that solidarity must be a lived commitment, not a commemorative one.
While threats have evolved and security has strengthened over a decade, the survivors’ struggle continues — for recognition, for adequate support, and for the assurance that society has truly understood what they endured.
Victims’ Associations · Life4Brussels · March 22, 2026The Muslim March Against Terrorism: Civil Society Stands Together
That march in 2017 was one expression of a broader truth that extremists fear more than any military response: that the communities they claim to represent reject them. The fight against radicalization and extremism is not a fight between civilizations. It is a fight within them — and it is won by the voices that say, loudly and publicly, that terror has no religion, no nationality, no legitimate grievance that justifies the murder of innocents at an airport check-in desk or a morning metro.
The Threat Has Evolved. Our Vigilance Must Too.
In the decade since March 22, 2016, Belgium and the European Union have made significant advances in counterterrorism: enhanced intelligence sharing through Europol, tighter airport and metro security, and expanded counter-radicalization programs. The improvements are real, and they have saved lives. But the threat has also evolved — as the wave of attacks in early 2026, including the synagogue bombing in Liège and the Iran-linked plots across multiple European capitals, demonstrates.
Radicalization has not disappeared. Returnees from foreign conflicts remain a live challenge. Online extremism has mutated and proliferated. And the geopolitical tensions that fuel recruitment — the wars in the Middle East, the grievances exploited by both Islamist and far-right movements — have intensified, not diminished. Ten years on, the fight is not over. The commemoration of March 22 must be not only a moment of grief but a renewal of commitment: to protect, to prevent, and to refuse the division that extremists seek to create between communities that live and belong together.
Ten years ago, I stood in the streets of Brussels watching this city — my city, the heart of Europe — absorb a blow that was designed to tear it apart. It did not. And in July 2017, when Muslim communities marched through those same streets to say “not in our name,” I walked with them — because that is what solidarity looks like in practice, not in ceremony.
Today, on the tenth anniversary of March 22, I pay tribute to every victim — to the 32 civilians who never came home that morning, to the 300 and more who carried the wounds forward, to the families who have had to learn to live with an absence that terrorism created. Their lives mattered. Their deaths must mean something — the ongoing, daily commitment to defend the values of freedom, coexistence, and democracy that the bombers sought to destroy.
The fight against extremism and radicalism is not a European fight or a Muslim fight or a Belgian fight. It is a human fight — and together, we are stronger. #TogetherWeAreStronger. #BrusselsRemembers. 🇧🇪🇪🇺
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