River transport: revival of Kinshasa–Kisangani traffic at the center of talks

Kinshasa, April 23^rd, 2026 (CPA).– The revival of river traffic on the Kinshasa–Kisangani route in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was on Wednesday at the center of discussions between the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Transport and the French Ambassador, accompanied by a delegation comprising representatives of the French Development Agency (AFD) and the French state-owned company Haropa Port, according to a statement consulted on Thursday. “(…) At the heart of the discussions that the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Transport, Jean-Pierre Bemba, held with the French Ambassador to the DRC, Rémi Maréchaux, was the structuring ‘Kivu–Kinshasa Green Corridor’ project, with particular emphasis on reviving river transport along the Kisangani–Kinshasa axis,” the statement read. According to the same source, the Haropa Port delegation, France’s leading logistics hub bringing together the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris, notably represented by its Director for Multimodal Projects, Pierre Lajoumard de Bellabre, shared its expertise in river and port logistics while reaffirming its willingness to support the DRC in modernizing port infrastructure and structuring an efficient river logistics chain, particularly along the strategic Kisangani–Kinshasa corridor. This initiative, the source added, is part of the vision of the President of the Republic, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, aimed at modernizing port infrastructure and making river transport a lever for economic development, national integration and the opening up of remote areas.