Annual appraisal reinforces institutional accountability
Gathered in Brazzaville from 17 to 18 December, the senior echelons of the Forces armées congolaises (FAC) devoted two full days to an exhaustive examination of the force’s major undertakings throughout the 2025 calendar year. Closing the session, General Guy Blanchard Okoï, Chief of the General Staff, expressed unambiguous satisfaction with both the tenor of the discussions and the tangible outcomes recorded during the period under review. By framing the exercise as “a dialogue of command”, he underlined the FAC’s commitment to collective introspection, disciplined transparency and sustained alignment with the directives issued by the national authorities for the defence of the Republic of the Congo.
Collective scrutiny anchored in frankness and humility
From the outset, General Okoï commended the atmosphere of candour that prevailed in the conference hall, observing that the candid exchange of viewpoints made it possible “to identify shortcomings” and agree on the most appropriate remedial measures. Such an approach, he argued, is indispensable to ensure that every echelon of command, from tactical units to the strategic headquarters, “looks towards the same horizon” and fulfils tasks with ever-greater efficiency. The Commander therefore urged participants to keep the momentum alive within their respective formations and to translate the conference report into concrete actions over the coming months.
Positive balance sheet tempered by acknowledged weaknesses
Delivering the official operational briefing, Brigadier-General François Ossele, Director of Operations at the General Staff, listed the principal achievements of 2025. According to his synthesis, substantial efforts were invested in the execution of the annual work plan as well as in the implementation of specific instructions emanating from the higher political-military hierarchy. While the general spoke of “many positive actions”, he was equally unequivocal in noting the persistence of certain fragilities. The merit of the gathering, he stressed, lay precisely in its capacity to juxtapose successes with imperfections and to converge, without complacency, on an agenda of corrective action.
Setting a forward-looking agenda for 2026
On the strength of the deliberations, the conferees distilled a set of guiding objectives destined for submission to the Minister of Defence. Although the granular content of these recommendations was not disclosed publicly, General Ossele hinted that they are calibrated to feed into the national programming cycle for 2026. General Okoï, for his part, insisted that the chain of command must “pursue and intensify” internal dialogue so that the revised objectives are fully absorbed across the force structure. By marrying rigorous self-assessment with a disciplined projection of future needs, the FAC leadership seeks to embed a virtuous loop of planning, execution and evaluation, thereby reinforcing the credibility of the institution and its unwavering mandate to safeguard the territorial integrity of the Republic of the Congo.