Belgium unveils plans to return DRC artworks stolen during colonial rule

Pledge marks first time items will be returned to Congolese ownership without waiting for requests

Belgium has promised to return artworks plundered from its former Congolese colony, as it seeks to confront its brutal colonial past.

Belgium's Africa Museum - a former totem to empire that has undergone a 75m (64m) revamp and decolonisation" process - has said up to 2,000 works, including statues, musical instruments and weapons, were acquired illegally during colonial rule of a swathe of central Africa, mostly the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.