The Belgian royal couple arrived in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this Tuesday, June 7 in the afternoon, welcomed at N’Djili international airport by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his wife Denise, as well as other high political figures mobilized for the occasion.
This is King Philippe’s first trip to this Central African country, a former Belgian colony, which comes twelve years after the last visit by a Belgian sovereign, Albert II, in 2010.
The royal couple, accompanied by a large government delegation, will stay six days in the DRC. After the capital Kinshasa, he should go to two other cities, notably Lubumbashi and Bukavu.
King Philippe, who acceded to the throne in 2013, responded to Tshisekedi’s invitation, amid reconciliation between the two countries. He had regretted, two years ago, the acts of violence and cruelty committed at the time when his ancestor King Leopold II had made the Congo his personal property (1885-1908).
In a letter addressed to the Congolese leader, the sovereign Philippe had expressed his “deepest regrets”? for the “wounds, the sufferings and the humiliations”? of Belgian colonization. A gesture strongly described as historic by many.
Also, relations between Kinshasa and Brussels were particularly tense during the end of the presidency of Joseph Kabila (2001-2018), the authorities in power in the DRC not having approved the remarks made by their Belgian counterparts accusing Kabila of having remained in power after his second term, in violation of the Congolese Constitution.
King Philippe and President Tshisekedi therefore wish to clean up the colonial past in order to start afresh on sound bases, and warm up relations between their countries.
By OMA Newsletter N° 732 of 07/06/2022
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
