Author: Congo Times

Presidential Promulgation Signals Firm Political Will With the stroke of a presidential pen, Law n° 30-2025 on the fight against the production, detention, manufacture, transport, trafficking and illicit use of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors entered into force in the Republic of Congo. The enactment follows unanimous approval by both chambers of Parliament and illustrates the Executive’s determination to address the mounting social and security risks posed by uncontrolled drug circulation. Often referred to by lawmakers as the “Moundélé-Ngollo Ehourossia Law”, the 86-article text inaugurates a comprehensive framework that reaches far beyond the repeal of scattered decrees, opening a…

A measured acceleration toward July 2026 The Dynamique républicaine pour le développement, a component of Congo-Brazzaville’s presidential majority, has entered a decisive phase of its institutional life. Less than a month after the August 21 conclave that redrew its organisational chart, party president Hellot Matson Manpouya opened, on September 27, the inaugural sitting of the preparatory commission charged with delivering the second congress scheduled from 31 July to 2 August 2026. The venue—Makélékélé, first arrondissement of Brazzaville—symbolically links the party to the capital’s historic districts while reminding militants of the grassroots logic espoused since its creation in 2015. The timetable…

Belgian Window: Goals, Absences and Leadership Tests Saturday’s slate in the Jupiler Pro League offered contrasting emotions for Congo-Brazzaville followers. Alexis Beka Beka, whose versatility had been welcomed by the staff of RAAL La Louvière, was conspicuously missing when the side fought to a goalless draw at Dender. Technical sources inside the club described the omission as a “rotational choice” designed to manage muscular fatigue, a reminder of the delicate balance coaches seek in the first third of the season. One tier below, the Challenger Pro League produced a brighter image. Enjoying numerical superiority from the thirty-second minute, Patro Eisden…

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…