Despite counter-terrorism efforts in Belgium, the number of minors at risk of being initiated into jihadist ideology continues to increase. Specifically, on Thursday 15/01, the latest annual report from Belgium’s State Security political intelligence service recorded the involvement of a 12-year-old child in this type of propaganda within terrorism case files. The relevant authorities began tracking minors in 2025.
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Belgium: Measures against jihadist threats
In this country, which will commemorate 10 years since the Brussels jihadist attacks this year (32 deaths in March 2016), carried out by the same cell responsible for the Paris attacks in November 2015, this ideology remains present and continues to inspire attack plans, although these appear to be less “sophisticated” now. “The Salafist-jihadist inspired terrorist threat continues to constitute the primary terrorism threat” in Belgium, the report states. This threat accounts for 80% of the files compiled by authorities within the framework of a national information-sharing system on extremism and terrorism, it emphasizes.
Last year, individuals identified as consumers of jihadist propaganda from organizations like the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda were “often young, even very young,” with an average age of 22, while “the youngest was 12 years old,” this intelligence service continues. The report does not clarify what judicial follow-up was given to the case of this 12-year-old child who was considered to pose a threat. “It’s clear that we are particularly careful when a file concerns a minor,” and once these suspects are identified, “we certainly reach out to the relevant authorities, for example the juvenile prosecutor’s office,” stated State Security head Francisca Bosten speaking to the Belgian French-language public radio station RTBF.
Plans for violent action in 2025 involved an “increasing number of minors,” who accounted for “approximately one-third” of suspects, State Security further reports. However, these teenagers “had, in the vast majority of cases, a plan that had progressed little, was poorly developed or difficult to implement,” the report adds. “Today we no longer expect attacks as organized as those we experienced in 2016,” Bosten stated. She mentioned that authorities are more concerned about isolated actions or actions by “small groups often connected to online activities.”
