Author: Congo Times

Congo’s triumphant re-entry into global capital markets Nineteen years after its last international fundraising exercise, the Republic of Congo has returned to the stage with a USD 670 million eurobond carrying a 9.875 per cent coupon and maturing in November 2032. The notes, admitted to trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange under the Regulation S regime, will be amortised in five equal instalments between 2028 and 2032, thereby spreading the repayment burden over the second half of the decade. The joint lead manager Citigroup placed the transaction with a book dominated by investors familiar with frontier-market…

Grassroots Engagement in Kouilou The forested corridor linking Pounga, Dimonika, Voilà and D6 is celebrated for its agricultural promise but has lately witnessed sporadic episodes of armed robbery, according to the Kouilou departmental security bulletin released in March 2025. Conscious that purely repressive measures seldom suffice, deputy Paul Valise Matombé opted on 2 November 2025 for an immersive outreach session in each village, placing civic dialogue at the core of crime-prevention policy. The initiative fits within the national orientation note on local governance and security, endorsed last year by the Ministry of the Interior, which encourages elected officials to become…

Port leaders convene in Pointe-Noire The Atlantique haze hanging over Pointe-Noire could not blur the sense of urgency expressed inside the conference room where the 20th round-table of directors-general of the Association of Port Management of West and Central Africa (Agpaoc) opened on 4 November. Presiding over the meeting, Arthur Borogui-Kuma, head of Ontario-Gabon and freshly elected chair of the session, warned that African port platforms are standing “at a decisive crossroads where governance must evolve as rapidly as trade flows”. His assertion set the tone for three days of closed-door discussions designed to chart an operational course for the…

All Saints’ Day in Brazzaville: a gesture of state empathy Shortly after ten o’clock on the morning of 1 November, the stillness of the Mokondzi-Ngouaka cemetery in Makélékélé was pierced by the solemn cadences of the hymn to the dead. Flanked by local officials and a discreet guard of honour, the Minister of Urban Sanitation, Local Development and Road Maintenance, Juste Désiré Mondélé, advanced between weather-worn headstones and placed a wreath of fresh flowers before a stone cross. The offering, modest in form yet potent in symbolism, embodied what the minister later called “a moment of remembrance, but also an…

A discreet anniversary, a vivid remembrance The second anniversary of Henri Lopes’s demise, falling on a quiet Sunday, passed with the serenity that the writer himself often sought in his final interviews. Yet silence did not translate into oblivion. In Brazzaville, readings organised by the Ministry of Culture and the Congolese Writers Association drew a cross-generational audience, while the Embassy of the Republic of the Congo in Paris laid a wreath at the Montparnasse cemetery, underscoring official recognition without ostentation. Observers noted that the gesture echoed President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s recurrent call for ‘cultural diplomacy as a pillar of national…

Historic partnership frames new community drive The colonnades of Brazzaville’s Palais du Parlement seldom lack solemnity, yet the atmosphere on 28 October 2025 was marked by unusual resolve. Convened under the patronage of Speaker Isidore Mvouba and in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme, deputies devoted an entire parliamentary day to the Accelerated Community Development Programme, or PADC. The initiative, scheduled for 2026-2030, is promoted as a strategic fast-track to eradicate poverty through place-based investments. UNDP’s regional director Matthias Zana Naab and resident representative Adama-Dian Barry underlined that the new framework stems from empirical mapping of needs across all…

Presidential Council Sets Reform Tempo Barely two hours sufficed for President Denis Sassou Nguesso to steer the 3 November 2025 Council of Ministers toward an agenda dense with legal modernisation and diplomatic positioning. From the ornate Salle des Banquets of the Palais du Peuple, the Head of State opened the session at 10:00 before closing it at noon, projecting an image of determined efficiency relayed by Government Spokesperson Thierry Lézin Moungalla in an official communiqué released the same afternoon. While routine in form, the gathering proved substantive in content. Three draft laws, one draft decree, a ministerial communication on climate…

A Pointe-Noire Appeal Gains National Echo When Aimée Clarisse Abambila quietly founded the Association des femmes dévouées (AFD) in March 2021, few in Brazzaville’s political circles imagined that the modest initiative would, two years later, command the attention of the highest offices of state. Yet the open letter the NGO released this month, addressed to President Denis Sassou Nguesso, has rapidly travelled far beyond Pointe-Noire, sparking commentary on radio panels and in faculty lounges alike. Its tone is respectful but resolute: AFD urges the head of state to translate the egalitarian spirit of Article 17 of the 2015 Constitution into…

Strategic supervision bolsters malaria drive Under the stewardship of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Resident Representative in the Republic of Congo, a high-level delegation has just completed an intensive supervisory tour of Pointe-Noire, Kouilou, Niari and Bouenza. The field mission, conducted from 10 to 11 October 2025, assessed the roll-out of the second phase of the mass distribution of Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs), locally known as MILDAs. The initiative forms part of the seventh Global Fund financing cycle devoted to malaria control and health-system strengthening, for which CRS is the principal recipient. Each visit opened with a courtesy call on…

Government tightens oversight on sensitive goods Without prior fanfare, a ministerial circular dated 30 October 2025 reached customs posts and importers across the Republic of the Congo, instructing an immediate suspension, « until further notice », of all shipments of machetes and motorcycles. The wording leaves no exemption for engine capacity, blade length or private consignments, and positions the two commodities on a growing list of so-called sensitive goods subject to heightened scrutiny. In the accompanying note, the authorities highlight the need to “preserve public tranquillity through a proactive control of products liable to be misused for violent ends”. Such…