The Belgian soldiers return to the barracks. End of street deployment in September 2021
(B2) Belgium will reduce its soldiers on the streets since the 2016 attack
The Belgian Council of Ministers approved on Friday (27.11) the proposal for the gradual reduction of soldiers on the streets (Operation Vigilant Guardian), as provided for in the government agreement.
Slow decline until September 2021
From December 2, the deployment of soldiers in the street will decrease. The maximum number of soldiers deployed will drop to 300 people (compared to about 500 people today). The federal police will resume the surveillance mission of certain places from December 1, 2020. If “ threat level remains constant », the police forces, federal and local, will have taken over all Defense surveillance missions by September 1, 2021.
Deployed since 2015
The soldiers had been deployed in the aftermath of the Paris attacks in January 2015, and reinforced twice, mainly after the Bataclan attacks in November 2015 (read: And Brussels went black) and the day after the attacks in Brussels in March 2016 (read: Mobilization of the Belgian defense after the attacks).
(NGV)