Author: Merveille Ilunga

Italy–Congo Health Cooperation Under the Mattei Plan Brazzaville’s southern health corridor has received a significant boost with the inauguration of a new intensive care unit at Makélékélé Hospital, described as the largest hospital serving the southern zone of the Congolese capital. The development is presented as one practical outcome of the Mattei Plan, an Italian framework designed to support selected African partners, under which Rome and Brazzaville concluded an agreement to support the health sector to the tune of €236 million over five years. The visit to Makélékélé took place on Friday, 9 January 2026, in the presence of Italian…

A minimum-service strike across three public hospitals Since 24 December, staff at the Blanche Gomes Mother-and-Child Specialised Hospital, the Brazzaville University Hospital Centre, and the Djiri General Hospital have been observing an open-ended strike while maintaining a minimum level of service. According to accounts gathered at the facilities, the movement has already curtailed routine operations in multiple units, with immediate consequences for patients’ access to care. In practical terms, the disruption has pushed some residents to turn to other health centres in the capital in order to obtain consultations or treatment that would ordinarily be delivered by these public institutions.…

Council affirms statutory backbone of two flagship hospitals Meeting in Brazzaville under the chairmanship of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, the Council of Ministers has given its imprimatur to the draft decrees establishing the statutes of the general hospitals of Ouesso and Sibiti. Presented by Health and Population Minister Jean Rosaire Ibara, the texts delineate the missions, governance architecture and financial regime of the two facilities, inaugurated in November 2025 and already considered pivotal to the national effort to widen territorial equity in the supply of specialised care (Council of Ministers communiqué). The vote formalises provisions contained in the founding laws…

Grassroots outreach from the driver’s seat At dusk on 26 December, the forecourt of Total Énergies’ station in downtown Brazzaville briefly resembled a medal ceremony. Amid the hum of engines, twenty taxi drivers were each handed a prepaid fuel card worth 15,000 CFA francs, a symbolic reward for having spent three intense weeks discussing diabetes with every passenger who stepped into their vehicles. The challenge, christened “Taxi Bomoyi” – taxi of life in Lingala – was orchestrated by the non-governmental organisation Marcher, courir pour la cause in partnership with private firms. Its purpose was straightforward yet ambitious: harness the ubiquity…

Seasonal traffic surge and shifting risk patterns In Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and emerging urban corridors such as Oyo–Owando, the final weeks of the calendar year generate traffic densities comparable to oil-sector pay-day peaks. Weddings, memorials and parish vigils stretch late into the night, encouraging motorists and motor-taxi riders to negotiate dimly lit avenues after toasting with friends. Police dispatch logs consulted by our newsroom confirm a spike of collision calls between 22.00 and 04.00 in December, with alcohol mentioned in nearly half of the reports, a proportion that mirrors the World Health Organization’s 2023 Global Status on Road Safety (WHO, 2023).…

A strategic cornerstone for the national HIV fight When the ribbon was cut on 15 December 2025 in Brazzaville, the National HIV/AIDS Control Programme (PNLS) moved into a building that is more than a physical address. It is intended as the nerve centre of a public-health strategy that, for nearly two decades, has sought both to curb infection rates and to anchor care within the wider social contract championed by President Denis Sassou Nguesso. Minister of Health and Population Professor Jean Rosaire Ibara, presiding over the ceremony, described the edifice as “a tangible translation of the Government’s conviction that health…

Brazzaville charts an ambitious roadmap Across two intensive days of deliberations in Brazzaville, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) specialists, senior Congolese officials and a spectrum of civic-sector actors converged on a common imperative: translate past pilot successes into sustainable, nationally owned programmes. The annual review and planning workshop, covering the 2025 cycle and sketching priorities for 2026, concluded on 16 December with nine consensual recommendations intended to consolidate results and expand the agency’s reach (UNFPA Brazzaville communiqué, 16 Dec). By placing the conversation at the crossroads of development policy and social inclusion, participants implicitly acknowledged the Congolese Government’s determination to…

A Regulatory Milestone for Patient Safety In a decisive step toward safeguarding public health, the Ministry of Health and Population convened experts on 15 and 16 December in Brazzaville to validate the National Guide to Good Pharmacovigilance Practices. The document, meticulously reviewed during the two-day workshop, sets out the procedures for the detection, assessment and notification of adverse events linked to medicines and other health products. By institutionalising these processes, the Republic of Congo aligns itself with international standards that require post-marketing surveillance to complement pre-authorisation trials. Officials underscored that the guide will serve as an authoritative reference for clinicians,…

Presidential Decrees Signal Leadership Renewal A month after the presidential decree of 3 November 2025 was published in the Journal officiel, Pointe-Noire’s hospital network has formally entered a new managerial cycle. In three successive ceremonies held on 6 December, Health and Population Minister Professor Jean Rosaire Ibara oversaw the hand-over between outgoing and incoming directors at the Adolphe Sicé Hospital, the Loandjili General Hospital and the Tié-Tié Reference Hospital. The choreography was identical in each venue—national anthem, reading of the decree, signature of hand-over minutes, then the sober remise des attributs de commandement. Yet the minister insisted that the moment…

A looming gap in lifesaving drug supplies The latest restitution mission of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has delivered a sobering projection: unless new resources are swiftly secured, stocks of antiretrovirals and anti-tuberculosis medicines could run dry in 2026 for close to 24,000 Congolese patients. The figure, disclosed in Brazzaville by portfolio manager Eplakessi Kouadjani, comprises some 20,000 people living with HIV and about 4,000 individuals undergoing tuberculosis therapy. The warning revives the perennial question of how to transform exceptional external aid into predictable, domestically anchored health financing. Young people and mothers on the epidemiological front…