King Philippe and Queen Mathilde were welcomed Tuesday afternoon with all possible honors upon their arrival in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A battalion of Congolese soldiers, the military band and of course President Félix Tshisekedi were waiting for the Belgian plane. The royal couple left Brussels on Tuesday morning for a five-day state visit to the DRC. He is accompanied by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Minister for Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir and Secretary of State for Science Policy Thomas Dermine.
After an eight-hour flight, the King and Queen were greeted by Félix Tshisekedi, the president who came to power four years ago and who helped thaw relations between Belgium and its former colony.
Tuesday evening, an official banquet will bring together the Belgian and Congolese delegations. King Philip’s expected speech will take place tomorrow/Wednesday. He is expected to reiterate the expression of “regret” written in the letter sent in 2020 on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the country’s independence. There could also be real excuses regarding the colonial period.
This royal visit, the first since that in 2010 of Albert II, father of Philippe, has been postponed twice, in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic then at the beginning of this year because of the war triggered by the Russia in Ukraine.
It has a strong symbolic significance, two years after the king, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the independence of the former Belgian Congo, expressed in a letter to Félix Tshisekedi his “deepest regrets” for the ” wounds” of colonization, a historic first.
The sovereign, who has reigned since 2013, had regretted the “acts of violence and cruelty” committed at the time when his ancestor Leopold II had made the Congo his personal property (1885-1908), before the half-century of presence of the Belgian State in the immense country of Central Africa.
“There were regrets, it’s the start of a new partnership which will go on consolidating itself”, estimated Monday evening in Kinshasa before the press the spokesman of the Congolese government, Patrick Muyaya, during a briefing dedicated to this visit.
“We do not forget the past, we look to the future”, he added, welcoming the “strengthened relations” with Belgium, when they were “in the past on the verge of rupture” .
The relationship was difficult between the two countries during the end of the presidency of Felix Tshisekedi’s predecessor, Joseph Kabila (2001-2018), criticized including by Brussels for having remained in power beyond his second term, in violation of the Constitution. Cooperation had been suspended for a while.
“Building a good future”
“I think that sometimes, in order to be able to build a good future, you have to face the past,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also told RTBF on Tuesday morning before leaving Brussels for Kinshasa, also referring to “the quite historic letter” from King Philip.
Going to the DRC and carrying “a message as an extension of this letter is a very, very important moment, (…) a historic moment”, he added.
The colonial past, with among other things the question of the return of works of art to the former colony, should once again be mentioned during this trip by the king who, according to the Belgian royal palace, also wants to give a “new breath” to the partnership with Kinshasa.
Health, education, training, forest protection… Philippe and his wife should have an overview of the sectors where development aid is exercised. Belgium is the fourth donor to the DRC, after the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.
The king’s trip will include three stages: Kinshasa first, including a visit to the national museum on Wednesday and a speech on the esplanade of the National Assembly; Lubumbashi in the mining southeast, with an intervention on Friday in front of university students, and Bukavu, in the east, a region plagued for nearly three decades by violence from armed groups.
The king must visit on Sunday in a peripheral district of Bukavu, capital of the province of South Kivu, the clinic of gynecologist Denis Mukwege, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his action in favor of women victims of rapes.
This trip by King Philippe comes at the height of renewed tension between the DRC and its neighbor Rwanda, accused by Kinshasa of supporting an old rebellion that reappeared at the end of last year and that violent fighting opposed the Congolese army in late May. the neighboring province of North Kivu. Kigali denies this but Félix Tshisekedi assured Sunday that he had “no doubt” about this support.