The Latest Breaking News from Democratic Republic of Congo

Pope Francis landed in Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday for a visit that will highlight the human cost of decades of conflict in the vast central African country, which is rich in minerals but where millions are displaced and live in poverty.

Pope Francis is expected in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, from January 31 to February 3. But a platform stage where he was supposed to speak collapsed in the Martyrs Stadium on January 30. Repairs were launched the same day, but some Congolese consider this episode…

Watch as Pope Francis arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a three-day stay in the capital Kinshasa.

Pope Francis will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, followed by a trip to South Sudan. He will be delivering a message of "peace and reconciliation" to two sub-Saharan African nations plagued by conflict.

Pope Francis arrived in Kinshasa on Tuesday for a six-day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan, two fragile African nations where protracted conflicts have displaced millions of civilians, sowing death, hunger and despair.

Pope Francis denounced the "poison of greed" driving conflicts in Africa as he began a visit to Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, saying the rich world had to realise that people were more precious than the minerals in the earth beneath them.

On 31 January, Pope Francis departed from Rome to central Africa, to visit the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its neighbouring state South Sudan. The visit was previously scheduled for 2022, but did not take place because of the pope’s health issues.

A canopy overhanging a stage built for Pope Francis in a Kinshasa stadium collapsed overnight during a heavy storm, Congo authorities said on Monday, three days before he is due to appear there for a public event.

Father Adeodatus Muhigi is among the Roman Catholic faithful in Democratic Republic of Congo's restive city of Goma who prepared to welcome Pope Francis last July, before the pontiff had to postpone a trip to Africa because of a knee ailment.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday condemned an offensive by M23 rebels in the east of the country that forced 450 people, including women and children, to seek refuge around its base in Kitshanga town.

Pope Francis next week heads to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, two countries grappling with conflict and profound poverty, in what will be his third visit to sub-Saharan Africa since he became pope in 2013.