Author: Congo Times

A geographically landlocked nation looks to the sea When the National Defence University of Zimbabwe (NDUZ) unveiled its new Centre for Maritime Strategy late last month, sceptics were quick to point out the obvious: Zimbabwe has no coastline. Yet, in a region where over 90 percent of external trade moves by sea, even a land-locked state cannot afford strategic myopia. According to Vice-Chancellor Air Vice-Marshal Michael Tedzani Moyo, Harare’s decision to court expertise from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) stems from a sober reading of Southern Africa’s economic map. The Beira and Durban corridors that feed Zimbabwean commerce are…

Batola’s political pedigree and his moment on the national stage The name Franck Davy Batola rarely featured in diplomatic dispatches until late 2023, when the legal-scholar-turned-advisor began circulating a memorandum titled “Nouvelle Confiance, Nouvelle Gouvernance” to parliamentarians in Brazzaville. A former lecturer at Marien-Ngouabi University and, briefly, a consultant to the Economic Commission for Central Africa, Batola has cultivated an image of technocratic independence while maintaining discreet ties to the governing Parti congolais du travail, according to two senior officials who requested anonymity. His recent media interventions, amplified by independent broadcaster Vox and the pan-African daily Jeune Afrique, have cast…

Overflowing bins meet ambitious promises When the Republic of Congo signed a twenty-year public-private partnership with Turkey’s Albayrak Group in late 2022, the memorandum hailed the arrival of a ‘comprehensive urban sanitation revolution’. The contract—reportedly valued at 150 million USD over its first five years (Jeune Afrique, November 2022)—mandates the Turkish conglomerate to modernise waste collection, refurbish landfills and introduce recycling facilities in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. The optimism that followed the ceremonial launch, however, is now colliding with a visible accumulation of household refuse along major arteries such as Avenue Matsoua in Brazzaville and the coastal Boulevard du Général-de-Gaulle in…

A Turkish Conglomerate Lands in Brazzaville When the Republic of Congo awarded its first large-scale urban sanitation concession to Istanbul-based Albayrak Group in 2021, the agreement was heralded in both Ankara and Brazzaville as a template for South–South cooperation (Congolese Presidency 2021). The five-year, USD 60 million contract covers waste collection, landfill management and street cleaning in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, two cities that together generate an estimated 1,200 tons of solid waste daily (UN-Habitat 2022). Albayrak executives promised modern fleets, GPS-tracked routes and job creation for some 2,500 local workers. For President Denis Sassou Nguesso, the deal answered growing popular…

A handshake at Saint-Petersburg echoes along the Congo River When President Denis Sassou Nguesso strode into the 2023 Russia–Africa Summit in Saint-Petersburg, few doubted that hydrocarbons would dominate his private exchanges with President Vladimir Putin. Yet the swiftness with which both leaders announced an enlarged energy roadmap startled even seasoned Kremlin watchers. According to Kremlin readouts and Congolese state media, the two sides agreed to advance joint ventures covering offshore crude, liquefied natural gas and civilian nuclear technology (RIA Novosti, July 2023). Oil blocks and sanctions: a marriage of convenience Russian majors, hemmed in by Western sanctions, are scouting for…

Pointe-Noire’s Aspirations Meet Continental Capital By inviting financiers from a dozen African states, Crédit du Congo and the Club Afrique Développement placed Pointe-Noire under a diplomatic spotlight usually reserved for larger capitals. The coastal city already handles close to a million containers yearly, and its deep-water expansion plan, modelled on similar projects in Tanger Med and Durban, formed the leitmotif of opening remarks. Hicham Fadili, the bank’s managing director, described the port as “a geometric centre of future Gulf of Guinea trade,” arguing that logistics capacity is now a currency in its own right. Recent data from the Central African…

A discreet graveside ceremony in a symbolic pantheon On a humid June afternoon, the cortège bearing Martin Mberi’s coffin slid through the gates of the Marien-Ngouabi mausoleum, a sanctuary normally reserved for the republic’s foundational figures. The decision to deposit his remains there only “à titre provisoire”, pending final burial in his native Mouyondzi, spoke volumes about the delicate equilibrium the presidency must strike between honouring a former confidant and managing regional sensibilities (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 6 June 2024). Under the subdued gaze of President Denis Sassou N’Guesso and First Lady Antoinette Sassou N’Guesso, the chaplain repeated the passage…

Congo’s Special Economic Zones as Laboratories of Diversification Since President Denis Sassou-Nguesso promulgated Law 33-2018 on Special Economic Zones, Brazzaville has portrayed these enclaves as catalysts for a post-oil economy. Oyo-Ollombo, strategically located in the forest-rich Cuvette Department, has long been earmarked for an agro-forestry tilt, yet previous memoranda struggled to survive the feasibility stage. The June signing in Vienna rejuvenates that narrative, positioning the zone as a showcase where natural-capital accounting meets industrial policy. Vienna Signing Ceremony and the Architecture of the Deal On 23 June, Ministers Jean-Marc Thystère-Tchicaya and Rosalie Matondo initialled a memorandum with Karl Ernst Kirchmayer,…

An Atlantic Terminus Meets Eurasian Ambition When Congolese minister Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso and Russian deputy energy minister Pavel Sorokin exchanged pleasantries on the fringes of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on 19 June, they discreetly confirmed what had circulated in industry circles for months: the Pointe-Noire–Loutété–Maloukou-Tréchot crude pipeline is no longer a mere memorandum. According to a Russian Energy Ministry communiqué published the following day and corroborated by the Congolese National Petroleum Company, ground-breaking is scheduled for the final quarter of 2025, with a 25-year operational horizon. The project threads together two geographies that had rarely overlapped in…

Forest Governance in the Congo Basin under International Scrutiny Few biomes capture the diplomatic imagination quite like the Congo Basin, a carbon sink second only to the Amazon. Yet the Basin is also an arena where corporate concessions and fragile institutions intersect. During the Brazzaville forum on climate initiatives and sustainable forest management, thirty participants from government, civil society, indigenous communities and the private sector scrutinised the country’s environmental stewardship. The meeting, financed by the United Kingdom with technical input from the NGO Fern, unfolded against the backdrop of fresh data suggesting that the Republic of Congo lost nearly 100,000…