BELGIUM’S King Philippe landed in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, in a historic visit to the central African country his ancestor once ruled brutally as his personal fief.
The monarch will undertake a six-day trip billed as a chance for reconciliation after atrocities committed under Belgian colonial rule.
The visit comes two years after Philippe wrote to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi to express his “deepest regrets” for the “wounds of the past.”
Tshisekedi and his wife greeted King Philippe and Queen Mathilde on a red carpet rolled out on the tarmac of the international airport of the capital Kinshasa, a sprawling city of about 15 million people.
On Monday, Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told reporters that Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were starting a “new partnership.”
“We are not forgetting the past, we are looking to the future,” he added.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander
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