Author: Emmanuel Mbala

High Nomination Fees Under Scrutiny In a briefing delivered on 9 October in Brazzaville, Dominique Basseyla, Minister and Commissioner of the ad-hoc Committee monitoring the Sibiti 2015 National Dialogue, drew renewed attention to the financial thresholds required to contest elections in the Republic of Congo. At present a presidential hopeful must lodge a deposit of 25 million CFA francs, while candidates to legislative and local bodies face fees of 1.5 million and 500 thousand CFA francs per list respectively. According to the Commissioner, such figures, though designed to deter frivolous bids, are proving prohibitive for “many citizens endowed with constructive…

Electoral recalibration follows administrative innovation Seven months after Parliament ratified the creation of three new departments, the Council of Ministers convened in Oyo on 7 October adopted a draft law that remodels the electoral code first promulgated in December 2001. The move is portrayed by government spokespersons as a technical yet indispensable consequence of the territorial reconfiguration that birthed the districts of Odziba in Djoué-Léfini and Bouémba in Nkéni-Alima. With these additions the National Assembly will see its seating plan expand, and several departmental and municipal councils will gain extra councillors, an evolution described by one senior official as “a…

Grassroots Legal Aid Gains Momentum in Brazzaville In the bustle of Brazzaville’s fourth-arrondissement courthouse, Garcel Dubblon’s discreet desk attracts a small yet steady queue of plaintiffs and defendants clutching sheaves of documents. As secretary-general of Le Livre du Congo blanc, the jurist-led organisation that relaunched its activities on 4 October, he now offers what many Congolese litigants have long sought but rarely obtained: free, competent guidance on the art—and science—of pleading before the bench. The initiative originates from a simple diagnostic. In civil and criminal chambers alike, Dubblon observes that otherwise legitimate claims collapse because the facts are imprecisely narrated,…

Diplomatic continuity at the Paris mission In the subdued elegance of the embassy’s Salle Verte overlooking the Boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg, Congolese diplomats gathered on 3 October to salute the close of Jean Félix Mokiemo’s six-year assignment as minister counsellor. Ambassador Rodolphe Adada reminded the audience that rotation is the lifeblood of any foreign service, a cadence set by Brazzaville’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. “A diplomat may feel he has taken root in one post,” he noted, “yet duty calls him elsewhere.” The sentence captured the ethos of continuity…

A brutal dawn in Château d’Eau The stillness of the early morning in Brazzaville’s Château d’Eau quarter was broken on 2 October by urgent cries for help. According to neighbours, a twenty-year-old woman was attacked inside her family home by the father of her five-month-old daughter. Armed with a machete, the man allegedly struck the young mother several times before fleeing. Bleeding heavily from deep lacerations to the forearm and shoulder, the victim was rushed to a nearby private clinic where a physician performed emergency sutures and stabilised her condition. Recurring violence and a fractured household Family members told reporters…

Strategic Vision Takes Shape in Brazzaville An atmosphere of quiet resolve pervaded the headquarters of the Congolese National Human Rights Commission as its eleven commissioners convened from 22 to 25 September 2025. Under the chairmanship of Casimir Ndomba, the ordinary session produced what participants readily described as a turning point: the unanimous adoption of a triennial strategic plan covering the period 2025-2028. The document translates the commissioners’ collective ambition into measurable objectives centred on justice, social cohesion and the protection of individual liberties, key priorities explicitly encouraged by the President of the Republic (final communiqué). The gathering was the first…

A ceremonial dawn for Congo’s youngest department The ochre esplanade of Odziba, one hundred kilometres north of Brazzaville, brimmed with the colours of national banners and the cadence of traditional orchestras as Interior and Decentralisation Minister Raymond Zéphirin Mboulou formally invested Léonidas Mottom Mamoni as inaugural prefect of Djoué-Léfini. The appointment, enacted by Presidential Decree n°2025-87 of 31 March 2025 and welcomed by lawmakers such as First Deputy Speaker Léon-Alfred Opimbat, gives institutional flesh to the most recent phase of Congo’s ambitious territorial reconfiguration. From floodplain to food basket: water as strategic nerve In his maiden address, the new prefect…

A milestone celebration in the heart of Brazzaville The gardens of the Chinese embassy overlooking the Congo River were awash with lanterns and trilingual banners on 29 September, when Ambassador An Qing welcomed cabinet members, diplomats and business leaders to mark the 76th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. The Foreign Minister, Jean-Claude Gakosso, led the Congolese delegation, signalling the high political value Brazzaville attaches to its partnership with Beijing. In her opening remarks, the ambassador traced China’s domestic transformation, stressing that the country has generated more than 30 percent of global growth for several years and lifted 770…

State Funeral in Brazzaville The subdued murmur of the crowd at the Palais des congrès on 29 September gave way to solemn silence when President Denis Sassou Nguesso stepped forward and placed a wreath at the foot of the chapel of rest. In a voice that carried across the vast auditorium, the Head of State conferred the rank of Commander of the National Order of Peace upon the late Serge Mombouli, former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Congo to the United States. “M. Serge Mombouli, in the name of the Republic, we hereby make you Commander in…

Anatomy of the Kulunas Phenomenon Well before the clang of military boots echoed last weekend in Ouenzé and Talangaï, the name “Kulunas” had become shorthand for a mode of urban violence that feeds on economic fragility and peer-group bravado. The expression, imported from Kinshasa in the early 2010s, designates loosely organised youth gangs armed with machetes and metal bars who specialise in lightning robberies at bus stops and markets. According to the latest situational report from the Congolese National Police, more than one-third of the assault cases wp-signup.phped in Brazzaville during the second quarter of 2024 bore the signature methods…