Qatari investment company Al Mansour Holding plans to invest $21 billion in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Doha is mediating the conflict in the east of the country, the Congolese government announced on Wednesday.

The group's founder and Qatari royal Sheikh Mansour bin Jabor bin Jassim Al Thani visited Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Tuesday as part of a tour of the African continent.

During a meeting held on Tuesday with Congolese Prime Minister Judith Suminwa, the Qatari delegation presented a "letter of intent for an investment of nearly $21 billion" in the DRC, the Congolese prime minister added in a statement.

"This strategic partnership brings together the private company Al Mansour Holding, the State of Qatar and the DRC," the text states.

These investments concern "multiple sectors", including agriculture, finance, mining, the pharmaceutical industry and hydrocarbons, according to the press release.

Contacted by AFP, a Qatari official indicated that Sheikh Mansour's visit to the DRC was in a private capacity, as a businessman.

At the end of August, Al Mansour Holding pledged $70 billion in investments in four southern African countries.

These huge financial commitments come as these poor countries face drastic cuts in US aid since Donald Trump came to power.

Eastern DRC is in the grip of the resurgence of the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group, which has seized large swathes of territory there.

Diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis all failed until the surprise intervention of Qatar, which succeeded in mid-March in bringing together in Doha the Congolese presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, whose two countries signed a peace agreement in Washington at the end of June.

In April, negotiations began in Doha between Kinshasa and the M23, and are still ongoing, so far without any real effect on the ground where clashes continue despite declarations by the belligerents.