"Ticking Time Bomb Has Exploded": Neighborhood Organizes Silent Vigil After Fatal Stabbing in Antwerp Seefhoek

In the Antwerp district of Seefhoek, neighbourhood committee Omarm Stuivenberg is organising a silent vigil on Thursday evening after the fatal stabbing on Sunday. A Tunisian man (32) was stabbed when he wanted to help a woman who was being harassed. The suspect (18), an Eritrean without papers, has since been arrested for murder. "Women and children have been harassed by drug dealers and users for a long time," says initiator Davy Van Bavel.

On Sunday afternoon in Antwerp, 32-year-old Ilyes Zairi lost his life trying to protect a mother and her child from a threatening teenager. He had been in Belgium for five years and was calmly involved. The attacker, armed with a knife, was fatally wounded.

Ilyes ‘Wajdi’ Zairi (32) wanted to help a woman who was being harassed in the Seefhoek on Sunday, but paid for it with his life. The man was stabbed on a square by an 18-year-old who had previously caused a commotion in the neighborhood. “I tried to stop the bleeding, but I was shaking terribly.”