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Congo (Vol 17, 2020)

in Africa Yearbook Online
Author:
Brett L. Carter
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(3,346 words)

President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has ruled the Republic of Congo for all but five years since 1979, spent much of 2020 preparing for the presidential election of March 2021. His efforts to transfer power to his son failed yet again, this time eliciting efforts by some in the presidential palace to depose the ageing president. To buttress his repressive apparatus, Sassou Nguesso supplied his Republican Guard with more than 100 tons of weaponry, purchased from the government of Azerbaijan with the aid of the Saudi ruling family and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. To raise money for his electoral campaign, he levied a tax on oil tankers at the Djeno terminal, which would be paid to a company owned by his nephew and would generate nearly $ 10 m per year. The Covid-19 pandemic generated widespread popular frustration which the government struggled to contain. The national lockdown caused citizens’ purchasing power to plummet, triggering widespread food insecurity. The government sought yet another $ 500 m bailout from the imf. After having forgiven the government’s debt in 2010 and provided a separate $ 449 m lending agreement in 2019, the imf refused. With his family targeted by public corruption probes in France and the United States, Sassou Nguesso’s foreign policy sought to diversify his alliance portfolio, which, he hoped, would render him less vulnerable to international sanctions.
Title:
Congo (Vol 17, 2020)
Author:
Brett L. Carter
Africa Yearbook Online
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/1872-9037_ayb_ayb2020_COM_0024
Language:
English
Source Editors:
Seidu M. Alidu, Benedikt Kamski, Andreas Mehler, and David Sebudubudu
First-online:
15 Jan 2022
ISSN:
1872-9037
Publisher:
Brill

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