Belgium ordered to pay reparations for colonial kidnappings in Congo

A Belgium court has ordered the government to pay reparations to five mixed-race women who were forcibly removed from their families in the colonial-era Belgian Congo.

The women, now in their 70s, were taken from their mothers when they were young children and placed in orphanages under a state policy.

The court said the government had a "plan to systematically search for and abduct children born to a black mother and a white father".

On Monday judges called this a crime against humanity and said the kidnappings were "an inhumane act of persecution".