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Nguesso Extends Four-Decade Rule in Congo-Brazzaville

Denis Sassou Nguesso has secured another five-year term as president of the Republic of the Congo. Six candidates were contesting in the election, but the main opposition was divided and largely absent. He campaigned on security, infrastructure development, and economic growth driven by oil and gas.

Critics and rights groups had accused the government of suppressing opposition figures and mismanaging state oil revenues.

Sassou Nguesso, who first came to power in 1979 and returned after a civil war in 1997. He ranks as one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, along with Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema and Cameroonian President Paul Biya. According to researchers Remadji Hoinathyand Nirvaly Mooloo of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the outcome is unlikely to shift the country's political trajectory.

InFocus

Andrew Itoua/IRIN

Campaign posters in Brazzaville (file photo).

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