King Philippe intended to go to Kinshasa on June 30 for the 61st anniversary of the independence of the democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but this voyage was postponed "by mutual agreement" "because of the medical circumstances as well in DRC as in Belgium", the royal Palate revealed on Tuesday.
This royal visit - the first since that of King Albert for the 50th anniversary of the independence of Belgian ex-Congo in 2010 - was ardently wished on behalf of the congolese authorities in spite of a recrudescence of the pandemia of coronavirus.
"The King intended to go to Kinshasa to take part in the celebrations of 61st anniversary of the independence of the DRC", the Palate confirmed Tuesday at the Belga agency.
"Because of the medical circumstances so much in RDC that in Belgium and of measures in force concerning displacements (apart from the European Union), it was decided by mutual agreement to postpone the voyage of the King" in DRC, - he specified.
King Philippe and the congolese president Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo were called yesterday (Monday), the Palate added.
The intention of the sovereign would be to go in DRC "when the conditions in the two countries allow it", the Palate continued.
The King will receive on June 21 in Brussels president Tshisekedi at the time of the official transfer of the "relics" of Mr. Patrice Emery Lumumba, the transitory congolese first Prime Minister after the independence of 1960.
He had been assassinated on January 17, 1961 in the secessionist province of Katanga (south-eastern) in circumstances which remained obscure but in the presence Belgians authorities.
Corneille Kinsala Nsoki
(CKS/Yes)