Author: Congo Times

Grassroots Solidarity Ahead of the New School Year The sharpened scent of new notebooks and crayons reached two Brazzaville orphanages this week, when the apolitical Borja Kouila Organisation handed out school kits to more than fifty children. The gesture, part of its “Tous pour l’éducation” programme, took place in Talangaï and Ouenze—respectively the sixth and fifth districts of the Congolese capital—only days before classes officially resume on 1 October. While the numbers may seem modest in a metropolis of two million inhabitants, the symbolic value is considerable: each orphan returned to class with the same basic equipment as any other…

Early Registration Momentum Builds in Brazzaville The late-September humidity did not deter a steady line of residents converging on the fifth constituency office in Ouenzé. There, officials of the national electoral commission have been revising the voter registry since 11 September, following the schedule adopted by the Ministry of the Interior. While the exercise is routine in the life cycle of elections, the atmosphere carried something of a civic renaissance: by mid-morning the flow of citizens had already surpassed the customary two or three daily visitors, according to Yowan Pandzou, a member of the local commission. He credited the surge…

A Compact Edition with Expansive Energy Condensing three traditional days into one, the eighth Rentrée littéraire du Congo gathered writers, editors, scholars and hundreds of students on 26 September at the French Institute of Brazzaville. The organisers from PEN-Congo had opted for a streamlined format, citing logistical constraints; yet the crowd’s enthusiasm suggested that less time did not mean less substance. Throughout the day, corridors buzzed with improvised readings, autograph sessions and spontaneous debates in both Lingala and French, reaffirming the event’s reputation as the country’s foremost marketplace of ideas. In his opening remarks, PEN-Congo president Florent Sogni Zaou praised…

Annual strategy session sets the tone The soft late-September light filtering into the library of Brazzaville’s Russian House did little to temper the seriousness of purpose that animated the educators assembled there on 25 September. Convened by Director Maria Fakhrutdinova, principals, academic deans and teachers of Russian reviewed the previous school year and defined the objectives that will guide instruction in 2025-2026. The gathering has become a fixture of the capital’s educational calendar, but this edition carried a particular weight, linking the customary evaluation exercise to fresh resources promised by Moscow. “Each year we meet before classes resume in order…

Strategic Partnership for Safer Highways The marble hall of the Brazzaville Prefecture was unusually animated on 24 September 2025. Beneath portraits of national leaders, the Directorate-General of Land Transport (DGTT) and the private operator La Congolaise des Frets (LCF) gathered some thirty officers from the police and the gendarmerie for an intensive seminar on mobile speed-control radars. The session was ceremonially opened by DGTT Director-General Atali Mopaya, whose address framed the project as an emblem of the state’s resolve to modernise public services and protect citizens. “Road safety is a public good; equipping our frontline forces with cutting-edge tools is…

Peace diplomacy meets economic calculus Speaking on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Denis Sassou Nguesso expressed satisfaction that former US president Donald Trump continues to frame peace agreements as a gateway to shared prosperity. The veteran Congolese statesman, who has witnessed every White House occupant since Jimmy Carter, argued that “without peace there is no development”, a credo he says underpinned Brazzaville’s mediation in the late-1980s talks that hastened Namibian independence and Nelson Mandela’s release. Trump’s claim of having worked to defuse seven conflicts in as many months struck a familiar chord in…

Diaspora Spark, Local Echo Under the noon heat that crowns the Moukoundzi Ngouaka School of Fine Arts, Alioty shoulders his canvas bag and recalls a not-so-distant era dominated by lightened faces. “It began with those coming back from the diaspora,” he reflects, underscoring how returning Congolese once displayed chemically brightened complexions that soon became aspirational for younger residents in Brazzaville and the hinterland. The practice, which initially trickled in as a symbol of cosmopolitan mobility, rapidly fashioned its own local following, turning cosmetic shops into discreet apothecaries of depigmenting lotions. Colonial Shadows on the Mirror Sociologist Eric Aimé Kouizoulou locates…

A landmark address at the 80th UNGA President Denis Sassou Nguesso walked to the famous green marble rostrum of the United Nations on 24 September 2025, carrying both the gravitas of a seasoned statesman and the conciliatory tone that has marked Brazzaville’s diplomacy since the early 1990s. Speaking to an audience of heads of state, diplomats and observers, he declared that the world had reached “a moment of inflection”, where the survival of multilateralism itself is at stake (UN Web TV, 24 Sept 2025). Conscious of the symbolism of the 80th session, he revisited the founding ethos of 1945—solidarity and…

Niamey Takes Centre Stage in the Migration Debate For two days the Nigerien capital has hosted an unprecedented consultation on irregular migration, bringing together government envoys, diplomats, civil-society activists, technical partners and religious leaders. In the hushed conference hall, the focal point quickly became the intervention of Dr Ernest Nounga Djomo, General Coordinator of the Panafrican Consortium for Peace. Speaking on 24 September, he placed the historic responsibility of colonialism at the heart of contemporary population movements from Africa toward Europe, arguing that the phenomenon can no longer be treated solely through the prism of security or humanitarian urgency. From…

Ceremonial splendour masks a tired multilateralism The marble lobby of United Nations Headquarters, freshly adorned with white lilies and a vermilion carpet, offered a veneer of optimism as delegates converged for the third day of the 80th General Assembly. Yet the courteous smiles could not conceal drawn faces: the accumulation of simultaneous crises—from Gaza to Eastern Congo—has left the multilateral engine short of breath. The official motto, “Together for a Better Future”, floated above the entrance like corporate sloganeering, pleasantly vague but ill-equipped to calm anxieties over the forum’s effectiveness (UN press service). Trump’s mechanical pause and rhetorical barrage Former…