Author: Patrice Nsenga

Brazzaville pulses as congress countdown begins A brisk Sunday morning saw Place de la Liberté transformed into a sea of red and white as hundreds of militants of the Congolese Labour Party converged for what organisers dubbed a “sportive march of commitment”. The rendez-vous, jointly orchestrated by the Organisation des Femmes du Congo and the Force Montante Congolaise, marked the unofficial opening salvo to the party’s sixth ordinary congress scheduled from 27 to 30 December in Brazzaville. Drums, chants and slogans echoed along the arterial road to Mpila, conveying an enthusiasm the leadership describes as “the lifeblood of the movement”…

Annual appraisal reinforces institutional accountability Gathered in Brazzaville from 17 to 18 December, the senior echelons of the Forces armées congolaises (FAC) devoted two full days to an exhaustive examination of the force’s major undertakings throughout the 2025 calendar year. Closing the session, General Guy Blanchard Okoï, Chief of the General Staff, expressed unambiguous satisfaction with both the tenor of the discussions and the tangible outcomes recorded during the period under review. By framing the exercise as “a dialogue of command”, he underlined the FAC’s commitment to collective introspection, disciplined transparency and sustained alignment with the directives issued by the…

A timely plea for coherent gender data Brazzaville’s late-afternoon light had barely faded on 12 December when Luce Bénédicte Gangue, head of the women-led association Kaani assistance, raised a measured yet pressing appeal: the Republic of Congo, she maintained, must equip itself with a national coordination mechanism devoted to administrative data on gender-based violence. Presenting the study “Making Violence Against Women Visible and Documented in the Republic of Congo”, she argued that fragmented reporting currently prevents institutions from discerning national trends with the necessary precision. The audience—composed of magistrates, police representatives, health professionals and diplomats—reacted with nods that suggested an…

Central Committee gathers in Brazzaville Beneath the high ceilings of the party headquarters on Avenue de la Paix, the Congolese Labour Party’s Central Committee convened its second extraordinary session on 9 November. The atmosphere blended ritual precision with a palpable sense of urgency as Secretary-General Pierre Moussa declared the meeting open and immediately set the tone. According to him, the work accomplished by the preparatory commission over recent months represents the “strategic base” upon which the Sixth Ordinary Congress will rest, and therefore deserves a debate that is both rigorous and lucid. A multidimensional agenda for the Sixth Congress The…

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…

A Cartographic Prelude to Diplomacy That borders can speak the language of statecraft is rarely as evident as in the Republic of the Congo, a nation whose contours negotiate six neighbours, two hemispheres and one of the planet’s most voluminous river basins. Diplomats long posted in Brazzaville point out that maps of the country perform a dual function: they chart space and, more subtly, they chart influence. From the coastal town of Pointe-Noire, where Atlantic swells meet Africa’s second-largest rainforest, to the Sangha highlands guarding Mount Nabemba at 1,020 metres, each altitude shift carries implications for trade, security and environmental…

A carefully timed meeting in Brazzaville signals renewed momentum When Minister Irène Marie-Cécile Mboukou-Kimbatsa welcomed World Food Programme Representative Gon Meyers to her Brazzaville office on 3 July, their handshake captured a quiet but decisive shift in the Republic of Congo’s humanitarian tempo. The country has experienced recurrent floods along the Congo and Oubangui rivers, periodic displacement around the Pool region and an uptick in climate-related crop shortfalls. Against that backdrop, the government is intent on shortening the distance—both physical and institutional—between vulnerable communities and life-saving assistance. According to senior officials, the meeting was less a courtesy call than a…