Author: Emmanuel Mbala

A Parliamentary Roadmap Enters Its Operational Phase When Senator Aristide Ngama Ngakosso welcomed French Ambassador Claire Bodonyi to Brazzaville on 21 August, the meeting appeared routine. Yet diplomats in both capitals viewed the encounter as a discreet turning point: the Franco-Congolese friendship group moved from declaration to implementation of the 2024 memorandum that embeds “information security” within bilateral cooperation. Paris and Brazzaville have long exchanged expertise on defence and public administration, but the new pillar formalises a shared doctrine that malicious digital influence constitutes a strategic threat comparable to conventional subversion. According to the French Senate’s public record, the roadmap…

Strategic Drill Rooted in Modern Threats At daybreak on 22 August, the parade ground of the Académie militaire Marien-Ngouabi reverberated with martial cadences as Lieutenant-General Guy Blanchard Okoï formally activated Opération Tambo, the sixth iteration of the Manœuvre École, or Maneco-6. Designed as a command-post exercise, the drill places senior staff trainees and future unit commanders inside a scenario where a mixed task force must reclaim and pacify a volatile border corridor riddled with trafficking and non-state armed groups. The fictitious plot mirrors genuine security externalities that persist along several central-African frontiers, thus granting the exercise immediate operational relevance, defence…

A Cosmopolitan Classroom in the Russian Capital For six intense days in late August, the newsroom of Sputnik’s headquarters near the Moskva River turned into a laboratory of transcontinental collaboration. Forty journalists from seventeen countries – among them the Republic of Congo, Tanzania, India, Brazil and Mexico – immersed themselves in seminars that blended data-driven reporting, mobile video production and forensic fact-checking. “Digital acceleration forces us to rewrite our professional vocabulary almost every quarter,” observed Tanzanian reporter Lydia Inda during a break, echoing a concern frequently expressed in UNESCO’s 2023 State of Media report (UNESCO, 2023). Why Training Has Become…

Parliamentary Vibrancy Returns to the Fore The usually measured atmosphere of the Palais des Congrès was briefly stirred in late August when Speaker Isidore Mvouba closed the ninth ordinary session with an unambiguous reminder of the National Assembly’s constitutional mandate. “The Assembly must mark the government at the belt,” he declared, borrowing the language of sport to signal a more proactive approach to oversight (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 20 Aug. 2025). The remark, though succinct, resonated in diplomatic circles because it pointed to a maturing institutional dialogue in Brazzaville that neither challenges executive legitimacy nor abdicates the legislature’s responsibility. Observers…

Bordeaux Ballot Sends Ripples Across Continents When the delegates of the Grand Orient de France gathered on 21 August 2025 in Bordeaux, the media headlines focused on the learned profile of their new Grand Master: Pierre Bertinotti, a 72-year-old economist who once steered strategic planning at France’s Ministry of Finance. Yet within hours, diplomatic telegrams circulating in several African capitals drew a different conclusion. Beyond the formalities of a one-year mandate, Bertinotti’s elevation was interpreted as a calibrated gesture to revitalise a discreet but resilient channel of Franco-African dialogue that predates most post-colonial constitutions. Bertinotti’s maiden speech, outlining a “refoundation…

Youth Diplomacy Gains Momentum in Kinshasa On 12 August 2025, the International Youth Day, the Forum International de la Jeunesse pour le Développement de l’Afrique, better known by its French acronym FIJADA, convened more than five hundred delegates from twenty-five African states in the cavernous Salle du Peuple of Kinshasa’s Palais du Peuple. Working beneath the banner “Creating a Sustainable Future: Youth Engagement for the Planet”, participants mapped out pathways by which demographic vitality could be channelled toward continental resilience. The chair, Jonathan Lumbeya Masuta, argued that “Africa’s demographic dividend will remain a potential until it is transformed into policy…

Yokohama hosts a pivotal Africa–Japan rendez-vous The ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development opened on 20 August 2025 beneath Yokohama’s humid summer sky, under the banner “Co-create Innovative Solutions”. Co-chaired by Angolan President João Lourenço, in his capacity as African Union chair, and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the forum convened twenty-one heads of state, senior executives of the United Nations, the World Bank and the African Development Bank, and hundreds of private-sector actors. Since its launch in 1993, TICAD has carved out a reputation for sober, multilateral dialogue, contrasting with the transactional style often attached to other partnership…

Diplomatic Pedagogy Meets Cultural Heritage In mid-August, the quiet gardens of Brazzaville’s Olympic Palace resonated with the confident footsteps of forty young women clad in pastel business attire. They were the inaugural cohort of Pupuce Academy’s master class, a four-day programme designed to convert raw talent into poised leadership. The timing was hardly accidental. Congo-Brazzaville’s National Development Plan 2022-2026 seeks to increase female participation in decision-making arenas, and the initiative’s patronage by Aurélie Makosso, spouse of the Prime Minister, endows it with both visibility and diplomatic gravitas (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 14 Aug 2023). Honouring the Legacy of Pupuce Ibata…

A new diplomatic platform in Shanghai The inauguration of the African Energy Chamber’s first overseas bureau in Shanghai crystallises a decade of deepening energy diplomacy between Beijing and African capitals. Strategically situated in China’s commercial nerve centre, the office is designed to operate as a clearing-house for information, finance and technical expertise, echoing the Chamber’s stated goal of transforming the continent from a peripheral supplier into a proactive architect of the global energy landscape. Dr Bieni Da, a veteran of both Chinese state institutions and African investment banks, has been appointed Chief Representative, giving the structure an immediate network in…

Sanitation Works Amplify Congo’s Climate Agenda From the marshy banks of the Djoué River to the sandstone cliffs of the Lefini, a concerted clean-up operation has been under way since 8 August in the districts of Odziba and Ngabé and in the neighbouring villages of Mpoumako, Inoni Falaise and Inoni Plateau. More than a thousand residents have exchanged their usual farming tools for shovels and wheelbarrows, removing refuse, reshaping drainage channels and stabilising footpaths that serve the surrounding Protected Agricultural Zones. The campaign forms the latest component of the Project for Inclusive and Climate-Resilient Economic Activities (Proclimat), a US $19…