Author: Congo Times

A legislative milestone for Congolese sporting governance With the quiet release of Decrees 2025-128 and 2025-129 in the Official Gazette on 18 April, Brazzaville entered a new era of codified sports administration. The instruments operationalise the 2023 Code du Sport, a framework long awaited by federations seeking clarity on ethics and remuneration. Speaking before the local press on 7 July in the VIP lounge of Stade Alphonse Massamba-Débat, Jean Robert Bindélé, Director-General of Sports, portrayed the texts as a synthesis of comparative law and domestic priorities (Agence Congolaise d’Information, 7 July 2025). The timing is not incidental: with regional competitions…

Brazzaville’s House of Russian Culture Revisits Classical Ambition The arched façade of the Maison Russe in downtown Brazzaville hardly betrayed the academic suspense unfolding inside on 8 July. Yet behind its doors ten finalists from five secondary schools—Nganga Édouard, La Réconciliation, Sébastien Mafouta, Thomas Sankara B and Atlas—were giving voice to Anna Karénina in Russian, each allotted precisely three minutes to persuade a jury steeped in philological rigor. The scene capped a month-long national pre-selection for the 2025 International Russian Language Olympiad, an event whose stakes reach well beyond the realm of grammar drills. In the words of Maria Fakhrutdinova,…

Strategic Timeliness for a Vulnerable River Basin The roar of the Congo River has long shaped the fortunes of the Republic of Congo, nourishing commerce while periodically spilling its banks in destructive floods. From 8 to 10 July, officials gathered in Brazzaville with the United Nations Development Programme to refine a national post-disaster recovery and preparedness strategy for 2025-2030. The updated document seeks to translate recent humanitarian lessons into a coherent policy architecture, reflecting the government’s stated ambition to consolidate resilience without hampering growth. According to the Ministry of Social Affairs, Solidarity and Humanitarian Action, more than 120 000 households…

Persistent fuel shortage tests post-COVID recovery Queues at filling stations stretching into the early hours of the morning have become an unexpected barometer of economic sentiment in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. Since late May, intermittent shortages of gasoline and gasoil have rattled small businesses, public transport operators and households already coping with the lingering effects of the pandemic and global inflationary currents. The Ministry of Hydrocarbons attributes the crunch to a confluence of factors: scheduled maintenance at the Congolaise de raffinage (Coraf), unplanned shipping delays and a structural mismatch between fast-growing demand and domestic refining capacity. According to the African Development…

Continuity of Leadership and Institutional Memory The serene atmosphere that prevailed inside Brazzaville’s Palais des Congrès as the Association of Former Cadets of Congo (AET) gathered on 6 July 2025 belied the strategic significance of the ballot that followed. Without overt contest, delegates renewed their confidence in Rémy Ayayos Ikounga, a retired officer whose career bridges the academy’s austere courtyards of the 1970s and the intricate diplomatic circuits of today. Local dailies, including Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, reported a near-unanimous vote, underscoring the value members place on continuity and institutional memory. Ikounga’s acceptance speech, pledging to “steer our vessel with…

Contextualising Youth Vulnerability in Congo-Brazzaville The Republic of Congo, mirroring wider continental trends, confronts a delicate nexus of juvenile delinquency and gender-based violence that threatens both its social fabric and its long-term development outlook. Recent national crime data indicate a gradual rise in offences committed by minors, while civil-society organisations document persistent cases of violence against women and girls. These challenges do not occur in a vacuum; they are compounded by rapid urbanisation, limited employment prospects and the lingering psychological effects of past conflicts. Officials in Brazzaville increasingly frame the issue not merely as a policing matter but as a…

Alexandria’s Diplomatic Classroom as Soft Power Incubator The marble arcades of the University Senghor in Alexandria, Egypt, have long been regarded as a discreet laboratory for the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. During the fourth edition of its Diplomatic Class, held from mid-June to early July, thirty-six young officials immersed themselves in simulations of crisis management and multilateral bargaining. Among them stood Yves Fortuné Moundelé-Ngollo, deputy for Ongogni in Congo-Brazzaville and newly appointed first vice-president of the APF Youth Network. His graduation speech, observers noted, was less celebratory than programmatic: it framed capacity-building as a first line of defence for…

Academic Year Culminates Amid Optimism The closing ceremony at Saint Joseph Le Grand in Mfilou merged the solemnity of report-card distribution with the exuberance of a student-led showcase, drawing a standing ovation from parents, teachers and local officials. The scene, carefully choreographed yet disarmingly spontaneous, underscored a national calendar that has seen nearly 1.9 million Congolese pupils complete the 2023-2024 cycle, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. While end-of-term festivities are hardly new, the scale of engagement this year points to a growing realisation that ceremonial pageantry can serve as soft power in the…

A ceremonial handshake with strategic undertones Four days after presenting her credentials to President Denis Sassou Nguesso, Ambassador An Qing crossed the granite forecourt of the Ministry of National Defence in Brazzaville. Behind the formality of military salutes lay a quiet acceleration of the Sino-Congolese defence dialogue. The minister, General Charles Richard Mondjo, invoked what he called a “mature partnership anchored in mutual respect,” while the envoy spoke of ushering in a “new Golden Sixty,” a phrase that riffs on the six productive decades since diplomatic ties were forged in 1964 (Xinhua, 8 July 2024). The timing is emblematic. Brazzaville…

From Strasbourg to Brazzaville: A Career Forged in Multilateral Arenas Before her appointment as Special Adviser to President Denis Sassou Nguesso, Françoise Joly built a career that repeatedly placed her at the confluence of Franco-African relations. Formed at Sciences Po Strasbourg and later within France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, she quickly became known for her deft handling of multilateral negotiations in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Her transition to Brazzaville in 2017 answered a presidential wish to reinforce the Republic of Congo’s representation in global fora and to attract climate-finance opportunities that smaller economies often fail to…