King Philippe of Belgium arrived in Lubumbashi in DR Congo

In a historic trip to the former Belgian colony, King Philippe of Belgium on Friday urged students in the Democratic Republic of Congo to exploit the country’s enormous mineral wealth for his own benefit. Lubumbashi is the main city in the copper- and cobalt-rich southeast of the DRC. The vast central African nation of 90 million people is one of the poorest in the world despite its mineral wealth. The Belgian monarch also said the DRC had enormous agricultural potential and described the Congo rainforest as an “ecological resource” essential to the fight against climate change.