Belgian King Philippe will make an official trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in June, his first visit to the former Belgian colony since the start of his reign in 2013, the royal palace announced on Thursday (May 5th). He will be in the DRC from June 7 to 13, accompanied by Queen Mathilde and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, the palace said in a statement.
Initially scheduled for June 2020 for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the independence of the former Zaire (now the DRC), this trip had to be postponed several times, in particular due to the Covid-19 pandemic, then at the end of February after Russia’s outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
This visit “At the invitation of the President of the DRC (…) Felix Tshisekedi » will stop in three Congolese cities, specifies the royal palace: the Belgian delegation must arrive in Kinshasa on June 7 at the end of the day, before going to Lubumbashi (Katanga, south) and Bukavu (South Kivu, east).
Bukavu, on the edge of Lake Kivu, near the Rwandan and Burundian borders, is the city where Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege, co-winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against sexual violence, works.
“Deep regrets for the injuries” of the past
According to a source familiar with the matter, the royal couple, who have already met in Belgium the one nicknamed “the man who mends women”could visit him in Bukavu in the Panzi clinic where he operates.
Beyond his role as a doctor, Denis Mukwege has become a symbol of the fight against impunity in the DRC. He is campaigning for an international court to finally take up the war crimes perpetrated for twenty-five years in the east of the country, documented in particular in a 2010 UN report that has remained a dead letter.
Concerning the colonial past and the debate on the violence blamed on former King Leopold II (who made the Congo his personal property in 1885), the Belgian-Congolese relationship has recently experienced a turning point.
On June 30, 2020, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of independence, King Philippe presented “his deepest regrets for the injuries” inflicted during the colonial period, a historic first.
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, the year 2020 was also marked by the creation of a parliamentary commission responsible for “make it clear” on the colonial past in Congo, Rwanda and Burundi and which will have to present recommendations.
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