[4] After a short stint as a research assistant at the Free University of Brussels, Adam entered the foreign service in 1962 and was posted in Havana, where he met his wife, Danielle David,[5] after which he served in Paris, Kinshasa, and London.
The bloody repression had profound repercussion to Belgo-Zairean relations, which were effectively put on hold until Mobutu's ousting from power by Laurent-Désiré Kabila.
Adam further had a meeting with Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya regarding Mobutu in March 1991 which resulted in the writing of an "explosive note" about the situation by the ambassador.
[9] Adam left Zaire in August 1991, right before the week-long looting spree of the national army in September 1991 Kinshasa.
[5] Adam was killed in the double suicide bombing in the departure hall of Brussels Airport in Zaventem on the morning of 22 March 2016, as he and his wife waited for their daughter, who was due to fly with them to the United States.