Belgian PM meets parents of Kurdish child killed by police

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Prime Minister of Belgium has visited the family of a Kurdish girl killed during a police chase of a van carrying migrants south of the country.

On May 18, Mawda Shamdin, a 2-year-old Kurdish girl, died after police shot at a van carrying migrants near the city of Mons in southern Belgium, AFP reported.

On Monday, Belgium Prime Minister Charles Michel visited Mawda’s parents to learn more about the incident, Kurdistan 24 correspondent Barzan Hassan in Brussels said.

During his meeting with Mawda’s parents, Michel promised to launch a prompt investigation to determine the circumstance of their daughter’s death.

Mawda died soon after the van she was traveling in with around 30 migrants, including her parents, was chased by Belgian police near the city of Mons.

Speaking to Kurdistan 24, Mawda’s parents, who had migrated from the city of Raniya in the Kurdistan Region, accused the Belgium police of being responsible for their daughter’s death.

The police had opened fire to stop the van carrying the migrants on a highway, wounding Mawda on the cheek who later died in the ambulance on her way to the hospital.

Prosecutor Frederic Bariseau told AFP the autopsy determined the cause of death was “a bullet that entered the cheek,” adding that they are assessing the evidence as the bullet could be ”from a police officer’s gun.”

According to the BBC, a group of 60 migrants blocked a motorway near Dunkirk, south of the Belgian border in France, in protest against the death of the Kurdish child.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon described the death of the child as a “tragic event with dramatic consequences,” stating that “the investigation is ongoing.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany