Author: Congo Times

Riyadh Summit: A Platform for Industrial Diplomacy The desert skyline of Riyadh has, for five days, become a crossroads of development diplomacy. From 23 to 27 November the Saudi capital hosts the 21st General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, a gathering that brings together ministers, multilateral lenders and private financiers under the banner “The Power of Investment and Partnerships to Accelerate the SDGs”. For the Republic of the Congo, the event offers far more than ceremonial participation; it constitutes a carefully choreographed opportunity to reaffirm Brazzaville’s determination to translate its industrial masterplan into concrete transactions. Fylla Saint-Eudes’…

Governance Meeting Sets Reform Agenda In the sun-lit council chamber of Bacongo’s town hall, the thirty-member management committee of the Bacongo Reference Hospital convened on 13 November 2025 under the chairmanship of arrondissement administrator-mayor Bernard Batantou. Director Dr Tanguy Fouémina presented the first-semester report in a session characterised by conciliatory exchanges and a shared determination to modernise one of Brazzaville’s busiest public health facilities (hospital report, 13 Nov 2025). Committee members, including delegates from the Departmental Directorate of Health, the Congo office of the World Health Organization and the Bacongo health district, unanimously agreed that “patients must remain at the…

Crowds Signal Enduring Popular Appeal From the Atlantic port of Pointe-Noire to the forested north-western town of Ouesso by way of Dolisie, President Denis Sassou-Nguesso’s recent working tour unfolded like a rolling civic pageant. Enthusiastic citizens packed avenues, waving the tricolour and chanting familiar refrains of unity. The itinerary, ostensibly technical, allowed the Head of State to inspect infrastructure projects and, on 24 November 2025, to inaugurate the new General Hospital of Ouesso, a facility expected to serve tens of thousands across the Sangha department. Observers note that the President deliberately avoided overtly electoral rhetoric. Yet the kinetic energy of…

Global return of strategic trade policy From Washington to Brussels the vocabulary of tariffs, carbon borders and local content rules has re-entered mainstream discourse. The United States’ Inflation Reduction Act links tax breaks to domestic battery supply, while the European Union is reinforcing its anti-dumping arsenal and mulling a carbon border adjustment. Academic taboos are fading: protecting critical capabilities is again considered a legitimate lever of statecraft (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development data, 2023). Against this backdrop, African capitals are asking whether the continent should remain the last bastion of unilateral openness. Historical evidence challenges laissez-faire orthodoxy Beyond the…

Brazzaville hosts a pivotal gathering of 1,225 delegates Between 20 and 22 November 2025 the Palais des Congrès of Brazzaville resounded with debate, song and the subdued hum of committee work as the Union Panafricaine pour la Démocratie Sociale (UPADS) convened its second ordinary congress, the first of comparable magnitude since 2007. According to figures released by the party’s secretariat, 1,225 delegates—drawn from the twelve departments of the Republic of Congo—answered the roll call, signalling both the geographical reach and inter-generational appetite for renewal inside the historic social-democratic movement (Journal de Brazza; ADIAC). The congress unfolded against a backdrop of…

Kigali hosts the 46th Francophonie Ministerial Under a gentle November sun the Rwandan capital offered a resonant stage for the 46th Ministerial Conference of La Francophonie, held on 19 and 20 November. Foreign ministers and senior envoys from the organisation’s 88 members gathered to ponder an agenda framed by the theme “Thirty Years after Beijing: Women’s Contribution in the Francophone Space”. Far from a routine diplomatic exercise, the debates produced a shared conviction that the initial promises of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women must now translate into binding political commitments inside each francophone state. Opening statements from the…

Workers voice 63-month wage plight The atmosphere inside the Société des Postes et de l’Épargne du Congo has grown tense after employees calculated that their cumulative salary arrears now cover fifty-three months—an uninterrupted period of financial uncertainty that stretches back more than five years. Members of the Federation of Postal and Telecommunications Trade Unions maintain that the backlog has eroded purchasing power, undermined morale and pushed some families below the poverty line. One shop steward interviewed in Brazzaville described “a cycle of degradation, stagnation and misery” that has become routine while the rest of the national economy pursues gradual recovery.…

Historic congress heralds overdue renewal For three days, from 20 to 22 November 2025, the Palais des Congrès in Brazzaville became the nerve centre of the Union panafricaine pour la démocratie sociale. The second ordinary congress, the first since 2007, brought together 1 225 accredited delegates from all twelve departments of the Republic of the Congo. Expectations were high: the party founded by the late President Pascal Lissouba had openly acknowledged the need for introspection after almost two decades without a comprehensive internal audit. By all accounts, the atmosphere alternated between scholarly debate and fraternal fervour, a blend that conferred…

Landmark sentence cements judicial resolve The Tribunal of Grande Instance of Madingou, sitting on 20 November, handed down a firm two-year custodial sentence to Mr Fulgence Claver Ntondélé Moukoko, alongside an immediate fine of 200,000 CFA francs and civil damages of one million CFA francs to the State. In the quietly packed courtroom the presiding judge emphasised that “the gravity of the offence lies in the irremediable harm inflicted on a strictly protected species”. By opting for the upper range of penalties available under national legislation, the magistrates signalled a determination to deter would-be traffickers from turning Congo-Brazzaville’s forests into…

Brazzaville’s Rallying Cry for Foundational Infrastructure From the marble hall of the ministry in Brazzaville, Minister of Industrial Development and Private-Sector Promotion, Antoine Thomas Nicéphore Fylla De Saint-Eudes, delivered on 20 November a pointed message: Africa’s communities will remain deprived of the full dividend of growth unless governments and partners inject fresh capital into basic infrastructure. His declaration, timed with the International Day of Africa’s Industrialisation, underscored the pragmatic link between roads, broadband, energy grids and the empowerment of households, small businesses and entire regions. The minister framed infrastructure not as an end in itself, but as a prerequisite for…