A visit postponed several times, in particular due to the health crisis,

A historic trip that will see the King of Belgium spend six days in the DRC.

The last trip of a Belgian sovereign dates back to 2010. King Philippe will deliver a speech tomorrow Wednesday before the Congolese Parliament meeting in congress, before going to Lubumbashi then to Bukavu.

visit of the King of the Belgians to the DRC comes at a particularly crucial moment for the DRC,

Nouvel Observateur

A moment marked by the conflict with Rwanda, its eastern neighbor.

This visit also takes place in a context of economic and social crisis for the Congolese population, a direct consequence of the war in Ukraine, but also of the mismanagement of national wealth by the rulers.

Alongside this gloomy picture

Le Nouvel Observateur, there is reason to add the economic and moral crisis skilfully maintained by a gluttonous, immature political class that cares little for the misery and poverty that affects three-quarters of the Congolese people.

We are going to give him a warm welcome, says one.

Just because the king is coming doesn't mean we'll forget the past.

The Belgians learned from what they did to the Congolese.

Human life is sacred.

Now that they are apologizing to us, we need to forgive them and look in the other direction.

This visit is a repentance, says another, to breathe new diplomatic and political air for our country.

Belgium colonized our country, and you know the results of colonization.

Nothing is expected of his arrival here.

Philippe in Congo, from today, it is a bridge to cement a cruel and painful past with a future that Congolese and Belgians hope promising

Belgium and the DRC have everything to gain from healthy and cordial relations

rather than spending their time rehashing a heavy colonial past which can no longer be changed.

That is to say if you have to know how to move forward

ups and downs

the end of Joseph Kabila's mandate had been particularly turbulent between Brussels and Kinshasa,

Belgium had strongly contested the continuation in power of President Kabila beyond the constitutional deadlines, to the point of suspending its cooperation.

His departure and the surprise victory of opponent Félix Tshisekedi changed the situation in 2019. The new Congolese president quickly went to Brussels to renew the threads of a relationship that had become strained.

for Brussels, this trip is above all an opportunity to turn the painful page of the colonial past with the Congolese,

In 2020, King Philippe had already taken an important step by regretting the

 committed at the time when his ancestor Leopold II had made the Congo his personal property.

By assuming its heavy colonial past, Belgium hopes to be able to renew its privileged relationship with the Congo.

But all these symbolic gestures seem far removed from the concerns of the Congolese

who oscillate between miserable living conditions and open war in the east of the country.

78% of the population lives on less than $2 a day, and despite the riches of its subsoil, the GDP per capita of the DRC remains one of the lowest in the world.

Unfortunately, the royal visit will not change the difficult living conditions of the Congolese people with a magic wand.