Author: Congo Times

A strategic overture from the CSLC In a carefully calibrated address on 12 December, Médard Milandou chose his first public appearance as president of the Conseil supérieur de la liberté de communication to sketch out an agenda that speaks both to economic sustainability and to professional ethics within Congo-Brazzaville’s media sphere. Gathered before editors, reporters and commentators, he lifted the veil on an executive structure reduced to essential figures – a president, a vice-president and a secretary in charge of finances – supported by eight high-level counsellors who steer the institution’s thematic commissions. The streamlined hierarchy, presented as a guarantee…

Historic funding underlines strategic realignment For the first time since its establishment in 2011, the National Civil Aviation Agency of the Republic of Congo (ANAC) will dispose of a budget exceeding nine billion CFA francs. Endorsed in Brazzaville on 12 December, the 2026 financial envelope is fixed at CFA 9.244 billion in projected revenue against CFA 9.237 billion in expenditure, leaving a modest operating margin designed to absorb market volatility. According to the agency’s communiqué, the priority is to reinforce operational capacity and to anchor a culture of proactive safety oversight across the national air transport ecosystem. Record allocation fortifies…

Mounting Salary Arrears Rekindle Labour Tensions An apparently uneventful morning traffic in Brazzaville often conceals the simmering unease of municipal and university employees who have awaited several months of pay. Since 17 November 2025, academic activities at Marien Ngouabi University have been largely suspended after staff opted for a “disciplined strike”, a term unionists use to underline their willingness to safeguard laboratories and libraries while pressing for overdue salaries. Within weeks, workers from the six main municipalities—Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, Dolisie, Mossendjo, Nkayi and Ouesso—followed suit at the call of the Union of Elected Secretaries-General of Congo’s Town-Hall Unions. Fiscal Constraints Meet…

A timely plea for coherent gender data Brazzaville’s late-afternoon light had barely faded on 12 December when Luce Bénédicte Gangue, head of the women-led association Kaani assistance, raised a measured yet pressing appeal: the Republic of Congo, she maintained, must equip itself with a national coordination mechanism devoted to administrative data on gender-based violence. Presenting the study “Making Violence Against Women Visible and Documented in the Republic of Congo”, she argued that fragmented reporting currently prevents institutions from discerning national trends with the necessary precision. The audience—composed of magistrates, police representatives, health professionals and diplomats—reacted with nods that suggested an…

A carefully timed gathering in Brazzaville In the early hours of Friday 12 December, the conference hall near downtown Brazzaville filled with party cadres, lawyers and civil-society observers invited by the Alliance for the Republic and Democracy (ARD). The three-day colloquium, opened by former finance minister and ARD coordinator Mathias Dzon, was conceived as a platform to examine the legal and operational parameters of the presidential election fixed by the Constitution for March 2026. Dzon’s first message was one of urgency: a conviction that “what is scheduled for March 2026 is not democracy but a violation of the conscience of…

A ubiquitous filler across dialects Walk along the arcaded avenues of Brazzaville, weave through a Kituba market in Dolisie or scroll through a family chat room, and one connective particle returns with metronomic insistence: “really”. Rendered in French as « vraiment », the term migrates with ease into Lingala, Kongo, Téké and the hybrid urban argot often called frangala. It punctuates laments about rising prices, excites approval for a football dribble and cushions disagreement in political debate. Its frequency is such that many speakers admit, with an indulgent smile, that a sentence lacking the adverb feels unfinished. The phenomenon is…

A Joint Roadmap Anchored in National Vision In a ceremony marked by measured optimism, Minister of Health and Population Jean-Rosaire Ibara and the World Health Organization’s Representative, Dr Vincent Dossou Sodjinou, unveiled the new Congo-WHO Cooperation Strategy 2025-2028 in Brazzaville on 5 December 2025. The document, built around the Republic’s Plan national de développement sanitaire 2023-2026 and the Fourteenth WHO General Programme of Work, sketches a common ambition: a resilient health system able to deliver quality services to every citizen, even in the face of shocks (WHO press release, 5 Dec 2025). Covering the period from January 2025 to December…

Brazzaville hosts pivotal CRCA session on polio eradication From 2 to 5 December 2025 the Congolese capital temporarily became the nerve centre of the continent’s anti-polio campaign, as the thirty-fifth meeting of the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication (CRCA) convened under the auspices of the Ministry of Health with technical support from the World Health Organization’s country office. Over the course of four intense days, government delegations and public-health experts from Ethiopia, Angola, Senegal, Chad and the host nation reviewed surveillance data, compared operational lessons and drafted a set of general and country-specific resolutions aimed at consigning poliomyelitis…

Nation gathers at Bouka Cemetery for a final salute Brazzaville—Two weeks after the passing of retired lieutenant-colonel Ernest Lekana, affectionately nicknamed “La Graine”, the tree-lined alleys of Bouka Cemetery filled with the muted cadence of military drums. Under a mild December sun the national flag draped his casket, while a firing party executed the traditional volleys in presence of senior officers and civilian authorities. At the head of the delegation stood Major-General Guy-Blanchard Okoï, Chief of the General Staff of the Congolese Armed Forces, who presided over the ceremony on behalf of the Republic. In a brief address he underlined…

A Ceremony Steeped in Respect and Continuity Under the vaulted hall of the Congolese Labour Party’s federal headquarters in Mpila, Brazzaville, an unusual hush prevailed on 10 December. Banners bearing the party’s crimson emblem framed a casket draped in the national tricolour as Secretary-General Pierre Moussa led a procession of officials from all nine city districts, Kintelé and Île Mbamou, reinforced by a delegation from Pointe-Noire. Their unified purpose was to bid farewell to Davez Eloko Ebouka, president of the party committee in Loandjili and member of the Central Committee, who passed away on 6 November at 66 after a…