This note is authored as an associate fellow at Fondation Jean-Jaurès, a French think tank recognised as a public-utility foundation, established in 1992. The Fondation regularly publishes notes, investigations and op-eds to inform public debate on major contemporary transformations — democracy, climate, geopolitics, social cohesion. It is in this capacity that I contribute to its work on energy and geopolitics.

Summary

Central Africa holds roughly 60% of the continent’s hydroelectric potential, yet its three main metropolitan areas — Kinshasa, Douala, Brazzaville, home to over 25 million people — remain in a supply crisis. The paradox is at the heart of this note: cities are the epicentre of energy demand and vulnerability, yet they have no decision-making power over the electrical systems that serve them.

The note analyses the diverging trajectories of the three countries between 2025 and 2026: renationalisation in Cameroon (Eneo became Socadel), a failed privatisation in Congo, and restructuring under World Bank conditionality in the DRC — each time with metropolitan areas excluded from the arbitration. Despite varying constitutional frameworks, metropolitan authorities hold formal rights without real control.

The article also examines the limits of the Central African Energy Pool (PEAC), whose interconnections ignore urban demand centres, and proposes two concrete paths forward: targeted European support for priority regional interconnections, and quota mechanisms in mining contracts to reserve 10 to 15% of contractual allocation for metropolitan supply.

Read the full note on the Fondation Jean-Jaurès website

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Logo: Fondation Jean-Jaurès — used for editorial purposes to identify the publisher of the note.