Congo

French presence

French community in the Congo: around 4,170 French nationals registered (May 2023).

Congolese community in France: around 50,000 residents permitted to stay in France (Ministry of the Interior, 2024).

There is a consular section at France’s Embassy in Brazzaville and a Consulate General in Pointe-Noire.

Visits

• 25-27 June 2025: Visit to Brazzaville by Thani Mohamed Soilihi, Minister Delegate for Francophonie and International Partnerships.
• 23 May 2025: Official visit to Paris by the President of the Congo, Denis Sassou N’Guesso.
• 17 April 2025: Visit to Paris by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Francophonie and Congolese Nationals Abroad, Jean-Claude Gakosso.
• 25 May-2 June 2023: Visit to Paris by Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, along with five ministers.
• 3 March 2023: Visit to Brazzaville by the French President.
• 24-30 August 2021: Visit to Paris by Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, along with a delegation of nine ministers with an economic focus.
• 16 April 2021: Visit to Brazzaville by Franck Riester, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, for the inauguration ceremony of President Sassou N’Guesso.
• 27 October 2020: Visit to Brazzaville by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian for the 80^th anniversary of the Brazzaville Manifesto.
• 3 September 2019: visit to Paris by President Sassou N’Guesso.

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

France is the Congo’s number one donor of bilateral official development assistance. The outstanding balance of the portfolio of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD, French Development Agency) stood at €489 million in 2025, with 22 ongoing projects and four funds for studies and capacity-building (FERC). In 2019, three France-Congo cooperation roadmaps were signed in the environment, health and higher education and research sectors.

The AFD is active in transport, infrastructure, forestry and biodiversity, and agriculture. It funds a number of projects under debt relief and development contracts or C2Ds (€150 million for the ongoing second C2D, covering the period 2015-2019).

French cooperation also supports strengthening the rule of law (mainly justice), the culture, heritage and artistic creation sector, improving people’s living conditions (public health and educational and cultural cooperation), and strengthening government bodies and public services.

Heritage cooperation between the two countries is very intense, supporting preservation of Congolese tangible and intangible heritage and fostering artistic creation. In this context, France is providing €4 million in support for the project to rehabilitate and promote the Centre for Training and Research in Dramatic Arts (CFRAD).

Other cooperation

Security and defence cooperation mainly focuses on high-level advice and training, in France or in regionally-oriented national schools (ENVRs) in Africa. France also supports the ENVR for engineering and construction, which has been recognized as an ECCAS (Economic Community of Central African States) Centre of Excellence since 2015.

On 3 November 2025, France and the Congo signed a declaration marking the official launch of the Academy against Environmental Crime. This original cooperation tool for the two countries will help train members of the administrations involved in fighting this crime and protecting the environment.