Author: Congo Times

Strategic Reset for the Domestic Championship Brazzaville’s national stadium echoed with cautious optimism on 6 September when Jean Guy Blaise Mayolas, president of the Congolese Football Federation’s Executive Committee, convened the chairpersons and general secretaries of all Ligue 1 outfits. With the first whistle of the 2025-26 Direct Ligue 1 scheduled for 13 September, the federation chose a deliberately early briefing to insist on a profound administrative reset, arguing that organisational efficiency now ranks as a sporting prerequisite. The message is clear: without robust governance, the technical quality displayed on the pitch will remain fragile. Mayolas’ call comes after twelve…

High-Level Message Hand-Delivered In the discreet corridors of Gulf diplomacy, protocol is rarely a mere formality. On 9 September 2025, Congolese Minister of International Cooperation and Public-Private Partnership Promotion Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso was received in audience by His Excellency Dr Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Qatar. Acting as presidential envoy, he conveyed a sealed message from His Excellency President Denis Sassou Nguesso to His Highness the Emir of Qatar. The delivery, even though undertaken during a working mission to Kuwait, signalled Brazzaville’s determination to maintain direct channels with Doha at the highest level.…

Global Burden and WHO’s 2025 Call Every forty seconds, a person somewhere in the world takes his or her own life, adding up to more than 720,000 deaths every year according to consolidated data from the World Health Organization. The figure is higher than all annual deaths from armed conflicts and natural disasters combined, underscoring suicide’s standing as a foremost public health emergency. Adolescents are disproportionately affected: for those aged fifteen to nineteen, suicide is now the third leading cause of mortality (WHO, 2023). Against this backdrop, the WHO, together with partner agencies, has set the theme of the 2025…

A swift purge meant to restore cohesion In a communiqué released in Brazzaville on 17 August 2025, the Union of Humanist Democrats-Yuki (UDH-Yuki) announced the immediate expulsion of deputy Gérald Lone Bambi Goma, departmental councillor Massengo Sylvain and political bureau member Gilles Fernand Bassindikila. Party president Joseph Badiabio signed the decision following an extraordinary meeting of the political bureau that, according to participants, lasted less than two hours but reviewed months of written grievances and testimonies (party communiqué, 17 August 2025). The UDH-Yuki insists that the three cadres repeatedly violated the organisation’s statutes, ignored earlier suspensions imposed in April 2024…

Modernising the CSLC rulebook The quiet auditorium of the Conseil supérieur de la liberté de communication filled on 8 September with a sense of institutional renewal. Its president, Médard Milandou, declared that the inaugural session “opens a chantier of reflection”, a construction site in the intellectual sense, designed to modernise the Council’s internal, financial and procedural texts. Citing article 55 of the current rules, he reminded members that the meeting follows the 19 August election of the vice-president and secretary accountant and is devoted exclusively to foundational documents. In practice, the body wants to ensure that its mechanisms for deliberation,…

Diplomatic Continuity Sealed at the Primature Barely a fortnight after presenting her credentials in Brazzaville, Maria Vittoria Ballotta was ushered, on 5 September, into the ochre-walled Primature where Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso presided over a concise but symbol-laden audience. According to converging governmental and UN sources, the encounter lasted close to an hour—sufficient, the Italian diplomat suggested, “to confirm in detail UNICEF’s alignment with the National Agenda for Children” while opening a chapter “of continuity anchored in tangible acceleration”. Ballotta succeeds Rwandan national Chantal Umutoni, whose tenure coincided with the adoption, in 2021, of Congo’s first integrated child-centred policy…

Brazzaville gathering underscores disciplined practice On 22 July 2025 the normally quiet corridors of the Centre Interdiocésain des Œuvres in Brazzaville resonated with a vocabulary seldom heard outside specialised theological faculties: discernment of spirits, prayer of liberation, minor and major exorcisms. Convened under the aegis of Archbishop Abel Liluala, metropolitan of Pointe-Noire and national coordinator for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the second session for Congolese exorcist priests unfolded behind closed doors yet in strict conformity with Church procedure. The theme, “The practice of exorcism”, set an academic tone that contrasted with the sensationalism often surrounding the topic in popular culture.…

Brazzaville’s Strategic Messaging A few minutes past noon in the business lounge of the Hilton Brazzaville, Minister of Communication and Media Thierry Moungalla rose before a packed hall of local and foreign reporters and reaffirmed, with deliberative calm, the Republic of Congo’s “unshakable support” for Firmin Édouard Matoko in the forthcoming election of the UNESCO director-general. The statement, delivered on 5 September 2025, came amid a faint hum of cameras and laptops, attesting to the regional resonance of the contest. Flanked by Claudia Ikia Sassou-Nguesso, Special Adviser to the Head of State, the government spokesman framed the press encounter as…

Opposition voices renewed demands in Brazzaville A measured yet firm declaration delivered in Brazzaville on 5 September 2025 has reopened the public conversation on the mechanics of Congo-Brazzaville’s forthcoming presidential election. Before cameras and smartphone lenses, Marcel Guitoukoulou, president of the Congrès du peuple, read a joint statement on behalf of the Rassemblement des forces du changement, an opposition platform uniting six party leaders in a common front. Their central plea is unambiguous: a complete overhaul of the electoral register, compiled this time with biometric technology, accompanied by a broad civic dialogue capable of easing partisan mistrust. The rationale for…

Government sets its sights on universal access to power Meeting diplomats and development financiers in Brazzaville on 5 September, Minister of Energy and Hydraulics Emile Ouosso reiterated the executive’s determination to narrow the rural–urban electricity divide that still characterises the Republic of Congo. According to the ministry’s latest survey, barely one inhabitant in ten living outside major cities enjoys a legal electricity connection, whereas the urban coverage rate stands at roughly sixty-four per cent once informal hook-ups are taken into account. The minister framed these figures as an impediment to industrial expansion, agricultural processing and even cultural tourism, stressing that…