2023-10-21 13:55:00
October 16 attack in Brussels: why was Sweden targeted?
If the Belgian BE-alert message distribution system was not deployed this Monday, October 16, 2023 nor the day after the attack, the answer is simple. “The primary goal of the system is not to inform of an incident but to inform the citizens concerned of the actions to be taken, determined by the emergency and police services, to ensure their safety,” explains Antoine Iseux, door – spokesperson for the National Crisis Center. “As part of the attack, we asked ourselves the question on Monday evening whether or not we communicated via this channel. We had also prepared to send a message to the King Baudouin Stadium, where there were Belgian and Swedish supporters, and to the Brussels-Capital Region. But since BE-Alert’s mission is to give recommendations to the population, we preferred to use other communication channels. Besides, if we had used BE-Alert, we would have had scenes of panic, saturation at the emergency number 112, etc..”
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“No SMS to 1,200,000 people”
After analysis of the perception and the context and on the basis of the elements to be communicated, “it was decided not to send an SMS to the million two hundred thousand people present in the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region that night”.
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Simply because the authorities wanted to use mass communication by resorting to numerous contacts with the media and by using the own channels of the different authorities involved: websites and social media (Facebook and X), widely followed and relayed; the systematic transmission of communications from the National Crisis Center to the Belga press agency (whose information is taken up very quickly by all media).
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And at the King Baudouin Stadium?
“With regard to the particular target audience constituted by the tens of thousands of supporters present at the King Baudouin Stadium, broadcasting the directives of the authorities via the stadium loudspeakers was considered the most effective way of informing them,” insists the National Crisis Center. “The Brussels police were able, in consultation with the stadium manager, to regularly transmit information to those present.”
”An additional element that was taken into account when deciding not to use BE-Alert is the fact that it would alert a large additional number of people without the expectation of immediate and concrete actions, with consequences potential for emergency or police services (panic reactions, congestion of emergency numbers, etc.).”
“Evaluation work” after each crisis management
In the aftermath of the terrorist attack which resulted in two deaths and one person injured, the use of BE-Alert was also evaluated. “Here again, it was not considered appropriate to reach the population in this way. It would have been different if, for example, the authorities had had to communicate as a measure, an express request to stay at home or not to go to Brussels.”
In any case, “it is certain that the reflection on the use or not of BE-Alert like the rest of the actions undertaken on October 16 and 17, will integrate the evaluation work carried out by the authorities after each management of crisis”.
The perpetrator of the attack this Monday evening in Brussels, Abdesalem L., was identified and died.
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