Assassination of Lumumba: Davignon's death opens a new judicial front against Brussels

Étienne Davignon, a former Belgian diplomat and the last of the ten individuals targeted by the complaint regarding the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, died on May 18, 2026, in Brussels. His death ends the criminal proceedings against him, but the Lumumba family announced the initiation of a civil lawsuit against the Belgian state to establish institutional responsibility for the crimes committed in January 1961. Belgium acknowledged a moral responsibility for Lumumba's assassination in 2002, but no judicial condemnation has followed.