Author: Congo Times

A regional forum amplifying youth voices For two intense days, 10 and 11 October 2025, the esplanade overlooking Dakar’s Atlantic shoreline became a laboratory of ideas. UNICEF-Sénégal invited more than two hundred adolescents from twenty-four West and Central African states to debate, draft and defend an education agenda designed by girls, for girls. The timing – on the eve of the United Nations International Day of the Girl – lent the conclave a symbolic gravitas that the participants embraced with disarming maturity. Among them, six delegates – Lucia, Frédéric, Charles, Rebecca, Shekinha and Euverte – carried the colours of the…

A consensual roadmap takes shape The conference hall in Brazzaville fell gradually silent on 8 October as delegates endorsed six carefully worded recommendations—signals of a national consensus around the first draft of the Republic of Congo’s Nationally Determined Contribution 3.0 (NDC 3.0). Central among those points is the completion of an exhaustive inventory of mitigation and adaptation measures, a prerequisite for turning aspirations into bankable projects. Participants also called for the swift integration of robust data, particularly in the agricultural sector, recognising both its exposure to climate shocks and its weight in the domestic economy. Memory of the previous cycle…

Visa Holders Enjoy 48-Hour Priority Access In a communiqué released simultaneously in Cairo and Rabat, the Confederation of African Football confirmed that the first tranche of seats for the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 is now on sale, with an exclusive forty-eight-hour window reserved for holders of Visa payment cards. The pre-sale, running from 13 to 15 October, opens at 09:00 local time in Morocco—one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time—before general ticketing begins on the morning of 15 October. CAF’s Commercial Director, Élodie Brou, stresses that the arrangement “rewards long-standing partners while preserving the principle of equal…

Civic Generosity Illuminates Brazzaville Classrooms A hum of eager voices filled a modest school courtyard in Brazzaville on 11 October as the Association Jhony-Chancel pour les Albinos (AJCA) joined forces with the organisation Redonner le sourire. Together they handed over notebooks, pens and carefully selected bottles of high-protection sunscreen to dozens of pupils living with albinism. The scene, discreet yet emblematic, demonstrates a form of civic generosity that is quietly reshaping the social landscape of the Republic of Congo. Invited guests included representatives of partner institutions, testimony to a solidarity that extends well beyond the two NGOs. Addressing the gathering,…

A sixty-year partnership enters a decisive phase The decision by Minister of International Cooperation Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso and the Chinese Ambassador An Qing to endorse an additional grant crowns a diplomatic relationship inaugurated in 1961 and often cited in regional fora as a model of constancy. According to a communiqué released by the Congolese Ministry and echoed by Xinhua on 2 October 2025, the new envelope will finance infrastructure, health and digital connectivity projects identified as “priority accelerators” in the 2022-2026 National Development Plan. Chinese support has long combined grants, interest-free loans and turnkey infrastructure. The new mechanism is…

Forest Track, Global Ambition The still-misty canopy of Odzala-Kokoua National Park echoed on 11 October with the rhythmic cadence of 120 distance runners, a record turnout for the Odzala Marathon’s sophomore year. Three distances—42 km, 21 km and 10 km—took off at staggered starts, each flagged away by Minister of Cultural and Tourism Industries Lydie Pongault. From the gun to the finish tape in Mbomo village, the contest unfolded less as a race against the clock than as a manifesto for Congo-Brazzaville’s emerging brand of eco-sports tourism. Victory over the classic 42 km went to Djibil Agnouka of African Parks…

A Heritage of Solidarity Spanning Six Decades When Minister of International Cooperation and Public-Private Partnership Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso received Cuban Ambassador Indira Napoles Coello in Brazzaville, the encounter was more than a routine diplomatic courtesy. It was the latest chapter in a relationship that has linked Brazzaville and Havana for over sixty years, interlacing the Republic of Congo’s quest for social development with Cuba’s internationally praised expertise in medicine and pedagogy. The minister publicly acknowledged, through an official statement later relayed on the social network X, “the constant commitment of the Cuban government at Congo’s side, notably in the…

Renewed institutional resolve in Brazzaville Eight October’s opening of the second awareness-raising workshop on Congo’s overhauled public-procurement code crystallised the renewed resolve of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority to anchor governance reforms in daily administrative practice. In a sober yet firm address, the Authority’s chair, Ludovic Ngouala, reiterated the body’s statutory mandate: “We shall remain the guarantor of transparency, efficiency and probity in the management of public resources, in full service of the country’s sustainable development.” Such phrasing, delivered in the packed conference hall of the Ministry of Finance annex, set the tone for three days of technical immersion for…

A Study That Shifts the Climate Lens to Children When Environment, Sustainable Development and Congo Basin Minister Arlette Soudan-Nonault inaugurated the validation workshop for the Climate Landscape Analysis for Children, she signalled a political inflection point. The minister emphasised that minors are “disproportionately exposed to floods, heatwaves and ecosystem degradation” (ACI, 11 Oct 2024). The study, elaborated with UNICEF technical support, argues that any effective adaptation strategy must recognise childhood as the most vulnerable and simultaneously the most promising stage of life. By foregrounding the experience of the young, Brazzaville joins a narrow cohort of African capitals adopting child-centred climate…

High Nomination Fees Under Review The debate surrounding the financial thresholds required to compete in Congolese elections resurfaced on 9 October, when Dominique Basseyla, Minister and Commissioner of the Ad-hoc Committee charged with following up on the 2015 Sibiti National Dialogue, issued a measured yet firm appeal. Speaking in Brazzaville, he described the current deposits—25 million CFA francs for presidential hopefuls, 1.5 million for local council slates and 500,000 for communal lists—as “manifestly dissuasive” for citizens rich in ideas but short of liquidity. He therefore invited political actors to “re-think these amounts” at the forthcoming inter-party forum so that the…