King Philippe of Belgium's "historic" visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a region brutally exploited by his ancestors, begins Tuesday as tensions rise in the country's volatile east, AFP reported.

The six-day trip, at the invitation of President Félix Tshisekedi, is of great symbolic importance, as it comes two years after Philip expressed his deepest regrets for the wounds inflicted by colonization to the Congolese leader.

This first visit by a monarch to the Democratic Republic of the Congo since taking the throne in 2013 has been described as a chance for reconciliation after the atrocities and other abuses committed during Belgian colonial rule.

The visit was originally scheduled for June 2020 to mark the 60th anniversary of the DRC's independence, but was pushed back to 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Then the visit was postponed from March to June due to the situation around Ukraine.

Philip will be accompanied by his wife, Queen Mathilde, and members of the Belgian government, including Prime Minister Alexander de Croo.

Historians note that millions of people in the Congo were killed, maimed, or died of disease while working on the rubber plantations owned by Leopold II, the Belgian monarch from 1865-1909 and brother of Philip's great-grandfather.

With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, several colonial-era statues have been removed in Belgium.