President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi on Tuesday, July 15, received a delegation of religious leaders at Mont Ngaliema Palace in Kinshasa.
The delegation was led by Ugandan evangelist Robert Kayanja and Archbishop Évariste Ejiba Yamapia of the Revival Church in Congo (ERC).
In a statement posted on its official X account, the Congolese Presidency referred to Kayanja as the "personal pastor of President Museveni."
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The meeting focused on regional peacebuilding, particularly in eastern Congo, and efforts to revive the economy through agriculture.
"We thank God for President Tshisekedi, thank God for allowing us to be received on Congolese soil," Kayanja said after the meeting.
The visit follows a recent pattern of quiet engagements between Kinshasa and Kampala. Just weeks earlier, Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, met with Tshisekedi in Kinshasa.
With President Museveni no longer frequently travelling abroad, figures like Muhoozi and Kayanja are seen as trusted messengers on sensitive regional matters.
Tshisekedi's outreach to faith leaders marks yet another unconventional step in his long, and increasingly desperate, campaign to resolve the crisis in eastern DR Congo.
Over the past two years, he has appeared to exhaust nearly every option on the table--from military offensives and lobbying Western governments to sanction Rwanda, which he accuses of backing M23 rebels, to offering Congo's vast mineral wealth in exchange for international support.
He has even turned to traditional healers, who publicly performed rituals believed to invoke spiritual protection for the nation. Now, he is engaging pastors.
The eastern provinces remain under siege. The M23 rebels, whom Kinshasa labels a proxy force for Kigali, have seized control of Goma and wide stretches of North and South Kivu.
They are running a parallel administration--collecting taxes, regulating traffic, and administering local justice--creating what officials describe as a "state within a state."
Shortly after Muhoozi's visit, Uganda reopened several border crossings in rebel-held zones, including Bunagana and Rutshuru.
While the move has facilitated trade, it has alarmed Congolese authorities, who view it as a dangerous endorsement of M23's de facto governance.
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In a post on his personal X account, Kayanja said he presented one of his books to President Tshisekedi as a symbol of spiritual solidarity and regional brotherhood.
With the region teetering under the weight of militia violence, displacement, and foreign interference, religious institutions are stepping up as soft-power actors.
Tshisekedi has recently met with traditional healers, besides seeking the intervention of Western governments against M23 rebels.
