Five mixed-race women sued the Belgian state for taking them away from their families in racially motivated abductions.

In a landmark case, a court ruled that the women, now in their 70s and 80s, who were taken from their parents in Belgian Congo, were victims of a crime against humanity.

In its ruling Monday, the Brussels Court of Appeal held the Belgian State responsible for the abduction and systematic racial segregation of five mixed-race children under Belgian colonial rule 70 years ago.

On Monday judges called this a crime against humanity and said the kidnappings were "an inhumane act of persecution". The Belgium government in 2019 issued a formal apology to an estimated 20,000 victims of forced family separations in DR Congo,