Author: Emmanuel Mbala

Unanimous Abuja Decision Positions Ghanaian Statesman The Ninety-Fifth Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, convened in Abuja on 11 December 2025, devoted part of its closed-door deliberations to the African Union’s rotational presidency. According to the draft decision circulated among delegations and later confirmed by officials in Accra, the ministers “warmly approve the candidature of H.E. John Dramani Mahama as the sole flag-bearer of the Community for the 2027 mandate” (ECOWAS Council of Ministers communiqué, 11 December 2025). Although the resolution did not surface in the final communiqué read to the press after the subsequent Summit of Heads…

A strategic overture from the CSLC In a carefully calibrated address on 12 December, Médard Milandou chose his first public appearance as president of the Conseil supérieur de la liberté de communication to sketch out an agenda that speaks both to economic sustainability and to professional ethics within Congo-Brazzaville’s media sphere. Gathered before editors, reporters and commentators, he lifted the veil on an executive structure reduced to essential figures – a president, a vice-president and a secretary in charge of finances – supported by eight high-level counsellors who steer the institution’s thematic commissions. The streamlined hierarchy, presented as a guarantee…

A carefully timed gathering in Brazzaville In the early hours of Friday 12 December, the conference hall near downtown Brazzaville filled with party cadres, lawyers and civil-society observers invited by the Alliance for the Republic and Democracy (ARD). The three-day colloquium, opened by former finance minister and ARD coordinator Mathias Dzon, was conceived as a platform to examine the legal and operational parameters of the presidential election fixed by the Constitution for March 2026. Dzon’s first message was one of urgency: a conviction that “what is scheduled for March 2026 is not democracy but a violation of the conscience of…

Nation gathers at Bouka Cemetery for a final salute Brazzaville—Two weeks after the passing of retired lieutenant-colonel Ernest Lekana, affectionately nicknamed “La Graine”, the tree-lined alleys of Bouka Cemetery filled with the muted cadence of military drums. Under a mild December sun the national flag draped his casket, while a firing party executed the traditional volleys in presence of senior officers and civilian authorities. At the head of the delegation stood Major-General Guy-Blanchard Okoï, Chief of the General Staff of the Congolese Armed Forces, who presided over the ceremony on behalf of the Republic. In a brief address he underlined…

A Ceremony Steeped in Respect and Continuity Under the vaulted hall of the Congolese Labour Party’s federal headquarters in Mpila, Brazzaville, an unusual hush prevailed on 10 December. Banners bearing the party’s crimson emblem framed a casket draped in the national tricolour as Secretary-General Pierre Moussa led a procession of officials from all nine city districts, Kintelé and Île Mbamou, reinforced by a delegation from Pointe-Noire. Their unified purpose was to bid farewell to Davez Eloko Ebouka, president of the party committee in Loandjili and member of the Central Committee, who passed away on 6 November at 66 after a…

Youth Engagement at the Heart of Anti-Corruption Strategy The commemorations of the United Nations-backed International Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December offered the Congolese High Authority for the Fight against Corruption (HALC) a strategic platform to reposition the country’s young citizens at the centre of the integrity agenda. In an address delivered at the institution’s headquarters in Brazzaville, Chairman Emmanuel Ollita Ondongo stressed that the demographic weight of the under-35 generation – estimated by the National Institute of Statistics at nearly 60 % of the population – transforms it into a decisive constituency for governance reforms. “Our objective is to accompany…

Abidjan hosts a high-profile continental gathering Abidjan’s Plateau district took on the air of a diplomatic crossroads as Alassane Ouattara, re-elected on 25 October, renewed his oath of office on 8 December. More than a dozen African leaders sat shoulder to shoulder in the polished auditorium of the presidential palace, lending the occasion the solemnity—and the symbolism—of collective endorsement. Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, seated prominently in the first rows, was among the earliest to be greeted by the Ivorian head of state, a gesture interpreted by protocol observers as a nod to the steady rapport between Brazzaville and Abidjan.…

A ceremonial opening rich in symbolism After several postponements that had fuelled both expectation and speculation, the Passerelle de l’Amitié finally opened on 6 December 2025 in the third constituency of Lumumba, Pointe-Noire. On the left bank of the Tchinouka River, traditional songs and the resonant drums of the Bahulu ba Niari created an atmosphere that blended festivity with civic pride as Deputy Maurice Mavoungou performed the ribbon cutting in the presence of municipal dignitaries, including Geoffroi Dibakala, and the Guinean consul, Hassan Diawara. Local residents, many of whom had followed the project’s gestation from its first survey stakes to…

Government–CSLC dialogue accelerates Inside the Ministry of Communication’s modernist building on Avenue du Général De Gaulle, Minister Thierry Lézin Moungalla welcomed President Médard Milandou Nsonga and the delegation of the Higher Council for Freedom of Communication for a working session that both parties described as “frank and forward-looking”. The agenda concentrated on the financial fragilities of news organisations, the increasingly complex administration of broadcast frequencies and the institutional strengthening of the regulator. By the end of the two-hour exchange, the outlines of a joint roadmap had emerged, promising a more resilient media landscape while preserving the constitutional guarantees of freedom…

A Swearing-In Steeped in Symbolism At precisely ten o’clock, West Africa Time, the ceremonial courtyard of the Presidential Palace in Abidjan filled with the cadence of a military brass band and the muted rustle of protocol. Alassane Dramane Ouattara, whose name had been formally proclaimed victor of the 25 October 2025 presidential election by the Ivorian Constitutional Council on 4 November, raised his right hand and repeated the constitutional oath that allows him to embark upon a fourth quinquennial mandate. The figures still resonate: 3 759 030 ballots in his favour, amounting to 89.77 % of valid votes, according to…